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Inverted Jenny

24c Inverted "Jenny" - The "Locket Copy"

Many of you know the story, but for those who don't, here it is ...

In 1918, the U.S. Post Office Department issued the first airmail stamp, picturing a Curtiss JN-4 airplane. It was a 24c bi-color stamp requiring two plates and two printing passes.

Several of the sheets were printed incorrectly with the airplane upside down, or inverted. While all others were caught and destroyed, one of the errors was sold to William T. Robey at a post office in Washington, D.C., resulting in one of the most famous discoveries in U.S. stamp collecting history!

The legendary sheet of "Inverted Jennies" was then sold a week later to dealer Eugene Klein for $15,000, turning a hefty profit of $14,976 (quite a sum in those days)!

The sheet then went to Colonel E.H.R. Green for $20,000, who broke it up and sold most of it over the years, keeping select examples for himself. This example is encased in the original locket created by Col. Green for his wife, Mabel. Green had the the Invert, which is from position 9 with a natural straight edge at the top, placed into the locket back to back with a normal 24c. The invert, which is fresh and bright, has two trivial corner creases at the bottom from being too close to the edge of the locket at some time in its past.

Scott never hinged value is $1.1 million! (Please note, the locket is clear with the stamps held between two pieces of glass!)

Provenance: Col. Green In 1918, shortly after the death of his mother, Hetty Green, the notorious "Witch of Wall Street", Col. "Ned" Green, an avid stamp collector, purchased the unique sheet of the famed "Inverted Jenny" from Philadelphia stamp dealer, Eugene Klein. Klein had just purchased the sheet from William T. Robey, the collector who had discovered the sheet in a local Washington, D.C. post office.

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