Follow your gut feeling never came more true than in May of 1918 for William T. Robey. He was a stamp collector and was aware that a new issue of stamps was going to be produced which required a two step process. He wrote to his friends the following:
“It might interest you to know that there are two parts to the design, one an insert onto the other, like the Pan-American issues. I think it would pay to be on the lookout for inverts on account of this.”
The two part design was for the 1918 24 cent Jenny. A Jenny is the nickname for US Army Curtiss JN-4HM. It was the nation’s first mailplane and was going to be featured on a stamp. During the printing process for this stamp, Robey was right. An error was made. The blue Jenny was inverted on the red frame of the stamp during production. Although some error sheets were noticed and destroyed, one misprinted sheet of 100 stamps got through.
This sheet of 100 happened to have been sent to a post office Robey visited while following his gut feeling and looking for stamps that might have been misprinted. He knew if he found any they would be highly valuable items. On May 14, 1918 he walked into the post office on New York Avenue and asked the clerk if he had any of the new airmail stamps. To his shock, the clerk brought up a sheet from behind his counter which had the Jenny inverted! Robey kept his emotions intact, bought the entire sheet of 100 for $24 (face value of the stamps), and quickly went home to hide his new found treasure.
The postal clerks became aware a sheet of errors were in circulation and soon went knocking on Robey’s door. They wanted the sheet back. Robey refused and decided to rid himself of the stamps by selling them to Philadelphian dealer, Eugene Klein, for $15,000. A huge sum at the time and great turn around investment for Robey.
At first Klein advertised he would sell the Inverted Jenny Stamps individually. However, within a short amount of time it was announced the entire sheet was purchased by collector, H.R. Green, for the sum of $20,000.
Green, after donating a stamp to the Red Cross and keeping some for his own collection, then sought to sell the remaining 24 cent Jenny Stamps to other collectors. It didn’t take long. The stamps were in demand with only 100 in existence. The stamps were numbered 1-100 and all found homes.
All 100 stamps are accounted for today, but one. That is the elusive #66.
In 1955 a block of four stamps (#65, 66, 75, and 76 )were stolen while on display at a Norfolk hotel. They were owned by Ethel McCoy. Since that time, three of the stamps have been recovered. One of those three, #76, surfaced just recently in 2016. The person in procession of this stamp was a British citizen who had inherited the stamp from his grandfather. He knew nothing about it, except that it was rare. During his attempt to auction it off, it was realized it was one of the two yet missing stamps.
The stamp was returned to its rightful owner, The American Philatelic Research Library. Ethel McCoy had stated in her will they would be the legal owners of the four stamps of the stolen block; even though some were still missing at her time of death.
The British gentleman, who was unaware of the treasure he had, received a $50,000 dollar reward that was being offered to anyone who could bring news of the missing McCoy stamp’s whereabouts. He had one.
However, #66 remains missing.
The values of the stamps are exceptional.
In September of 2018, #49 of the 100 Inverted Jenny Stamps sold at auction for a record sum of $1,593,000 dollars.
The #66 Jenny Stamp is a missing and lost treasure which might resurface at any time and any where! Be on the lookout for it. You never know if, like #76, it might now rest in hands of someone who is unaware of what they hold. It could mistakenly be thought of as just an old stamp and show in the most unlikely location!
Best of luck with all that you seek! Always Treasure the Adventure!
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Holy Mountain of Snow! That is amazing!