U.S. Investment Immigration focus on U.S. News: To reignite public interest in philately and inspire a new generation of stamp collectors, the U.S. Postal Service has specifically reprinted a stamp that became a treasure in the history of U.S. philately due to a printing error.
Although this differs from the Postal Service's consistent past practice of sparing no cost to retrieve such misprinted stamps from collectors to cover up its "mistakes," it is still a boon for philatelists and has received support from all walks of life.
The protagonist of this "retro trend" is the "Inverted Jenny," which was accidentally misprinted 95 years ago, featuring the "Curtiss JN-4" biplane printed upside down. This 24-cent stamp was the first generation of U.S. airmail stamps, originally intended for airmail service between Washington and New York, but it unexpectedly changed the life of collector William T. Robey one morning in 1918.
After discovering the "Inverted Jenny," Robey treated it as a treasure; he sold 100 "Inverted Jenny" stamps and used the proceeds to buy himself a new house. Since then, such printing errors have not occurred again, and today, the price of a single stamp has reached six figures.
At the opening ceremony of the "William H. Gross Stamp Gallery" at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington last month, the U.S. Postal Service issued new "Inverted Jenny" stamps. These stamps are valued at $2 each, sold in sheets of six with exquisite borders. The printing uses the original stamp's engraving process, with over 2 million stamps printed. Among them, 100 sheets feature the plane facing the right way up, but the official authorities have not disclosed which ones were intentionally "misprinted." Since each sheet is individually packaged, it is impossible to know whether the stamps are "misprinted" at the time of purchase, and lucky buyers may even receive a certificate signed by the Postmaster General.