Download this report as an MP3 sound file.

A Slap on the Wrist

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries.

Nearly two years after they were issued, we’re told those un-inverted Jenny airplane
stamps violated the rules.

To review — in September 2013, the U-S issued reprints of the 1918 error stamp in which
the airplane was printed upside-down. They had two-dollar denominations and came in
sheets of six.

Shortly after, we found out that the Postal Service had printed one hundred of those
sheets with the airplane RIGHTSIDE-up, and those rarities were scattered at random
throughout the more than two million normal sheets.

Some of those upright sheets have sold for tens of thousands of dollars... after being
purchased for 12.

According to Bill McAllister in Linn’s Stamp News, the Postal Service Inspector General
says creating an intentional rarity was inappropriate influence of the secondary market
and a violation of what little policy there is on stamp collecting.

Furthermore, the I-G says the Postal Service’s complicated distribution plan didn’t
work and wasn’t completely random. Most of the un-inverted sheets haven’t been sold.
Only about two dozen of them have been found.

The Postmaster General and Chief Marketing Officer who both signed off on the plan have
moved on, but current management tells the Inspector General it isn’t going to destroy
the remaining un-inverted stamps.

I'm Lloyd de Vries of The Virtual Stamp Club. For more on stamps and stamp collecting,
visit virtual-stamp-club-dot-com.

----------------------------------------------------------
Go to Previous Report
Go to Next Report

Go to Report Index