Every collector loves an error story, and this one might be the best in American philately. In May 1918, the Post Office rushed out a new 24-cent airmail stamp featuring a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, nicknamed the “Jenny.” Because the stamp used two colors, each sheet had to go through the printing press twice, once for the frame, once for the plane. On one sheet, somebody loaded the plane image upside-down, and nobody caught it before the sheet reached a post office counter.
A collector buying stamps that day noticed immediately, bought the entire sheet of 100 for 24 dollars, and knew exactly what he was holding. That single sheet is the only known example of the error. It’s since been broken up and sold stamp by stamp over the decades, and individual copies have sold at auction for well over a million dollars each.
It’s a good reminder of something we love about this hobby: sometimes the most valuable thing in a collection is a mistake nobody was supposed to keep. Do you have any error stamps or coins in your own collection? We’d love to hear about them.