Dec 27, 2007 5:28 pm US/Eastern
New Yorker Buys Stamp For $825K
'Inverted Jenny' One Of Only 100 Not Discarded In Early 20th Century
DALLAS (AP) ―
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This stamp, showing an upside-down Curtis JN-4 biplane known as "Jenny," is one of only 100 not discarded in the early 20th Century.
AP
One of the most famously flawed stamps in U.S. history sold for $825,000 to a New York man who bought it slightly cheaper than the record price another "Inverted Jenny" copy fetched at auction last month.
The rare 24-cent stamp, depicting an upside-down Curtis JN-4 biplane known as "Jenny," was sold privately this week to a Wall Street executive who did not want to be identified.
But Heritage Auction Galleries president Greg Rohan, who brokered the sale, said the buyer is the same collector who lost an auction last month in which another "Inverted Jenny" sold for $977,500. The winning bidder was New York real estate magnate Charles Hack, Rohan said.
Rohan said his client, whom he described as not being a rare stamp collector, was glad to get another chance at the prized misprint.
"I suspect he's going to enjoy owning it and showing it to a few close friends," Rohan said.
The mint condition red, white and blue stamp is one of the finest known surviving stamps from the original sheet of 100 misprints. The original 100 were bought at a Washington, D.C., post office in 1918.
The Dallas auction house calls it one of the world's most famous rare stamps.
Randy Shoemaker, founder of Professional Stamp Experts, said there are probably fewer than 1,000 collectors in the world with the money and obsession to seriously pursue such a rare item.
"This is the Rolls Royce," Shoemaker said. "It's the most expensive airmail stamp in the world."
Rohan said Heritage acquired its stamp from Sonny Hagendorf, a dealer from Scarsdale, N.Y. Rohan said the copy sold by Heritage is one of fewer than five to have never been hinged, meaning affixed with adhesive to be placed in a stamp album.
While the "Inverted Jenny" is considered a top find for philatelists, or stamp collectors, there are stamps in the world that are more coveted. Among them are the one-penny and two-penny "Post Office Mauritius," printed in the mid-1800s on the island nation that was then part of the British Commonwealth. The stamps are sought after because they are the first British stamps printed outside England, and because they bear the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid," a more common term at the time.
In 1993, a cover bearing one Mauritius of each denomination sold at auction for $3.8 million, which remains the "the highest price ever paid for a single philatelic item," according to
linns.com, the Web site of a large weekly newspaper for stamp collectors.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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