Editing Inverted Jenny (section)

==Background==
During the 1910s, the [[United States Post Office]] made a number of experimental trials of carrying mail by air. These were shown by the first stamp in the world to picture an airplane (captioned as "aeroplane carrying mail"), one of the [[U.S. Parcel Post stamps of 1912–13]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.1847us.com/ByYear/1912.htm|title=1912 U.S. Postage Stamp Identifier|website=1847us.com|access-date=2017-01-15|archive-date=2017-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108002428/http://www.1847us.com/ByYear/1912.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Post Office finally decided to inaugurate regular service on May 15, 1918, flying between [[Washington, D.C.]], [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], and [[New York City]]. The Post Office set a controversial rate of 24 cents for the service, much higher than the 3 cents for first-class mail of the time. The postage had a value {{Inflation|US|0.24|1918|r=2|fmt=eq}}.  The Post Office decided to issue a new stamp just for this rate, patriotically printed in red and blue, and depicting a [[Curtiss JN4|Curtiss Jenny]] JN-4HM, the [[biplane]] especially modified for shuttling the mail. The stamp's designer, [[Clair Aubrey Huston]], apparently troubled to procure a photograph of that modified model (produced by removing the second pilot seat from the JN-4HT to create space for mailbags, and by increasing the fuel capacity). As only six such aircraft existed, there was a 1-in-6 chance that the very plane engraved on the stamp by Marcus Baldwin—Jenny #38262—would be chosen to launch the inaugural three-city airmail run; the plane on the stamp was indeed the first to depart from Washington on May 15, taking off at 11:47&nbsp;a.m.<ref>Trepel, Scott ''Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K. Miller Collection'' (2006, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Washington D. C. and The New York Public Library, New York, N. Y.), p. 155.</ref>

The job of designing and printing the new stamp was carried out in a great rush; [[engraving]] began only on May 4, and stamp printing on May 10 (a Friday), in sheets of 100 (contrary to the usual practice of printing 400 at a time and cutting into 100-stamp panes). Since the stamp was printed in two colors, each sheet had to be placed into the [[Flat bed press|flat-bed]] printing press twice, an error-prone process that had resulted in invert errors in stamps of [[1869 Pictorial Issue|1869]] and [[Pan-American invert|1901]], and at least three misprinted sheets were found during the production process and destroyed. It is believed that only one misprinted pane of 100 stamps got through unnoticed.<ref name="Goldstone2015">{{cite book|author=Lawrence Goldstone|title=Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmmPDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA373|date=21 April 2015|publisher=Ballantine Books|isbn=978-0-345-53805-5|pages=373–}}</ref>

Many collectors long thought the blue plane portion was printed first, thus it was actually the red frames that were inverted. In fact, the frames were printed first and it is the planes that are upside down.<ref name="ben miller">{{Cite book |last=Trepel |first=Scott R. |author2=Lawrence, Ken |title=Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K Miller Collection |publisher=[[National Postal Museum]] and [[New York Public Library]] |date=2006 |location=New York |pages=155–157 |isbn=1-891568-06-X }}</ref> In examples where the plane is so far off center that it overlaps the frames, it can be seen that the blue ink used to print the plane lies atop the red ink used to print the frames. The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum offers two explanations for how this might have occurred: either a sheet of printed frames was placed in the press upside down for the printing of the plane; or the printing plate used to print the planes was mounted inverted within the printing press.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2013/01/usps-unveils-inverted-jenny-stamp.html |title=USPS Unveils Inverted Jenny Stamp |publisher=[[National Postal Museum]] |date=2013-01-18 |access-date=2013-09-28}}</ref><ref name="ben miller"/>

Initial deliveries went to post offices on Monday, May 13. Aware of the potential for inverts, a number of collectors went to their local post offices to buy the new stamps and keep an eye out for errors. Collector William T. Robey was one of those; he had written to a friend on May 10 mentioning: “It might interest you to know that there are two parts to the design, one an insert into the other, like the Pan-American issues. I think it would pay to be on the lookout for inverts on account of this.” On May 14, Robey went to the post office to buy the new stamps, and as he wrote later, when the clerk brought out a sheet of inverts, "my heart stood still".<ref name="Inc.1987">{{cite journal |author=Boy Scouts of America, Inc. |title=Boys' Life |journal=Boys' Life. Inkprint Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rmYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58|date=March 1987|publisher=Boy Scouts of America, Inc. |pages=58–|issn=0006-8608}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The American Legion Magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/americanlegionma853amer|year=1968|publisher=American Legion Magazine}}</ref> He paid for the sheet, and asked to see more, but the remainder of the sheets were normal.<ref name="WaPo">{{cite news |first=Michael E. |last=Ruane |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/05/16/an-aviation-flop-led-to-stamp-collecting-history-and-made-the-inverted-jenny-famous/ |title=An aviation flop was a stamp collector's dream and the U.S. Postal Service's nightmare |newspaper=Washington Post |date=16 May 2018 |access-date=19 August 2018}}</ref>  The postal clerk who sold the sheet later said he did not realize the image was inverted because he had never seen an airplane before.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-inverted-jenny-24-cent-stamp-came-be-worth-fortune-180969090/|title=How the Inverted Jenny, a 24-Cent Stamp, Came to Be Worth a Fortune|first=Daniel|last=Fernandez|website=Smithsonian}}</ref>

Additional details of the day's events are not entirely certain—Robey gave three different accounts later—but he began to contact both stamp dealers and journalists, to tell them of his find. After a week that included visits from [[United States Postal Inspection Service|postal inspectors]] who tried to buy it back,<ref name="WaPo"/> and the hiding of the sheet under his mattress, Robey sold the sheet to noted Philadelphia dealer [[Eugene Klein (philatelist)|Eugene Klein]] for $15,000.<ref name="WaPo"/> Klein placed an advertisement on the first page of the May 25, 1918 ''Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News'' offering to sell copies of the invert ($250 for fully perforated examples, $175 for stamps with one straight edge), but announced in his following week's ad that the entire sheet had been purchased by an individual collector.  The buyer, who paid $20,000, was "Colonel" [[Edward Howland Robinson Green|Edward Green]], son of [[Hetty Green]].{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Klein advised Green that the stamps would be worth more separately than as a single sheet, and Green went along. He donated one invert (which was auctioned off for $300) to the Red Cross in support of its war efforts, while retaining forty-one of the stamps in his own collection, including the plate-number block (initially eight stamps) and several blocks of four.<ref name="Sundman">Donald Sundman, ''The Jenny Invert Plate-Number Block'' [Kindle Edition], Mystic Stamp Company 2012, ASIN: B008MAOPUG</ref> The remainder of the inverts were sold off at steadily increasing prices through Klein, who kept a block of four for himself.<ref name="siegal sale"/> Green had one copy placed in a locket for his wife. This gold and glass locket displayed the inverted Jenny on one side, and a "regular" Jenny stamp on the other. This locket was offered for sale for the first time on May 18, 2002, in the Siegel Auction Galleries Rarity Sale. It did not sell in the auction, but the philatelic press reported that a Private Treaty sale was arranged later for an unknown price.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

The philatelic literature has long stated that seven of the stamps have been lost or destroyed through theft or mishandling. However, in 2007 a copy came to light that had not been seen since Eugene Klein broke up the sheet, and was offered for auction that June. Several others have been damaged, including one that was sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Apparently Green's wife mailed one which, while recovered, is the only cancelled sample. Indeed, no Jenny invert is in pristine condition, because Klein lightly penciled a number on the back of each stamp (from 1 through 10 in the top row to 91 through 100 in the bottom row) so that its original position on the sheet could be identified.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kenmorestamp.com/the-inverted-jenny-error|title=The Inverted Jenny Error|website=www.kenmorestamp.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.siegelauctions.com/lot_grd.php?btnSubmit=Search&sale_no=&lot_no=&fastsale=on&sdate1=01/01/1930&sdate2=10/11/2011&lotclass=All&majgroup=United+States&cat_supgroup=U.S.+Stamps&subgroup=All&lot_catfk=All&catselect=eq&srtorder=c3a&pfoper=gt&pfgrade=&gandor=or&pseoper=gt&psegrade=&symbol%5B%5D=All&realized1=&realized2=&keyword=&recsperpage=10&sea_name=&pscolumn=default&sortord=DESC&calledfrom=lkp&sea_emailflag=on&pscolumn=default&sortord=DESC&calledfrom=lkp|title=Siegel Auction Galleries — Power Search|website=www.siegelauctions.com}}</ref> For many years, only five examples were known to have survived in never-hinged condition.<ref name="Siegelrec"/> One of these is the locket copy, which, however has another condition problem: a corner crease at the bottom right probably caused while it was being enclosed behind glass.<ref name="locket">2002 Rarities of the World (Siegel Auction catalogue, Sale 846, May 18, 2002), p. 158.</ref>