AMER WINTER 2016
The live portion of this session begins on Wednesday, February 3, 2016.
RARE 2013 JENNY RIGHT-SIDE-UP 6-STAMP BLOCK OF THE JENNY INVERTED STAMP.Referred to as the un-inverted Jenny stamp. One of the rarest and most famous United States stamps issued by the U. S. Postal Service was the 1918 issue of the 24 cent stamp showing the Curtiss JN-4H biplane or Jenny on it. This stamp was rushed into production to celebrate the first airmail flight. In May of that year a single page of 100 stamps is sold to William T. Robey a cashier from Washington, D.C. He had just purchased the only misprints of this stamp to fall into private hands. The misprint shows the "Jenny" upside down! A block of four inverted Jennys from this original block of 100 was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in October 2005 for $2.7 million. (This would make the original block of 100 worth $67,500,000!) Fast forward to 2013. The Postal Service reissues the "misprinted" inverted Jenny stamp to commemorate the rarest of all misprints. But in a twist of marketing the Postal Service secretly produces 100 sheets of 6 stamp blocks of the new Jenny stamp right side up, creating a rarity "misprint " of the original misprint. They are among the 2.2 million sheets of six $2 stamps issued. All sheets are individually wrapped in sealed envelopes to recreate the excitement of finding an inverted Jenny when opening the envelope and to avoid the possibility of discovering a corrected Jenny prior to purchase. Individuals purchasing one of the 100 noninverted Jenny sheets find a congratulatory note inside the wrapping asking them to call a phone number to receive a certificate of acknowledgment signed by Postmaster General Patrick. This was very much in the tradition of Charlie from the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory finding the "Golden Ticket" in the chocolate bar. Of the 2.2 million 6 stamp sheets produced approximately only one half have been sold and only 24 "non-inverted" stamp blocks have been found. The Postal Agency has admitted to a huge mistake that broke the agency's own rules, which prohibit postal officials from intentionally creating a rare stamp just to make money. The other twist is that the Postal Service kept back 23 sheets to distribute later but now under the controversy may not distribute them, so that instead of the rarity of 100 sheets there actually may only be 77 sheets allowed into the public. James D Julia, Inc. has been selected to sell the most recent 24th sheet found of this rare issue. This sheet was purchased in Waterville, Maine in Mid - September. Accompanied by a signed certificate of acknowledgment of the limited edition "Right side up" souvenir sheet dated September 22nd, 2013 and numbered "24/100". Also, including the original sealed package holding the sheet of 6 stamps along with the congratulations card telling the customer they are the recipient of 1 of the 100 stamp sheets. Also a standard block of 6 inverted Jenny stamps for comparison. SIZE: CONDITION: Very good, as issued. 49844-1 WAG (40,000-60,000)