NEW YORK – A rare ‘Inverted Jenny’ stamp that was stolen from a stamp show in Norfolk in 1955 was returned to the American Philatelic Society during a special ceremony at the World Stamp Show in New York City on Thursday.
Inverted Jenny block (American Philatelic Research Library)
The stamp is one of a block of four stamps stolen at the show 61 years ago. It had been owned by Ethel McCoy, a New York stamp collector who loaded out the block to organizations for public display.
The famous ‘Inverted Jenny’ stamps all come from one sheet of 100 stamps printed in 1918. The Post Office Department hastily created the stamps as it instituted the nation’s first official airmail service. Since the stamps are bicolored — a blue plane inside a red frame on white paper — the stamps had be run through the press twice to create the stamp. It is thought that the inverted sheet was mistakenly placed on the press upside during the printing of one of the colors on the sheet.
The entire sheet of stamps was purchased by a lucky collector, William Robey, at a post office in Washington, D.C. The stamp was quickly sold to a dealer, then a collector, and over the next couple of decades was broken into singles and blocks, which were snapped up by collectors.
McCoy willed the rights of the her stolen block of stamps to the American Philatelic Research Library in 1979 when she died. They’re now the legal owners of the block of stamps.
Two of the missing four stamps were recovered in the 1970s and 80s, but there was no information on the remaining two stamps. A $50,000 reward was even offered in 2014 by Donald Sundman, President of the Mystic Stamp Company, for each of the two missing stamps and the American Philatelic Research Library has offered $10,000 for information leading to their recovery. The offers are set to expire this year.
According to the American Philatelic Society, Keelin O’Neill of Ireland, who inherited the missing stamp from his grandfather, brought the stamp to an auction house in New York City in April to sell. The stamp was taken to the Philatelic Foundation in New York City, where it was discovered that the stamp was Position 76 of the missing McCoy Block.
“Every stamp tells a story and the story of the Inverted Jenny now has a new chapter,” said Scott English, Administrator of the APRL, “This is a great day for philately and the result of a great partnership in the stamp collecting community and hard work of federal law enforcement.”
O’Neill will receive a $50,000 reward for returning the stamp to the APRL from Sundman and the Mystic Stamp Company. The whereabouts of the last stamp from an original block of four, identified as Position 66, remains unknown.
English added, “While we are thrilled to have one more of our stamps back, there is still one more stamp missing and anyone with information about Position 66 should contact the APRL immediately.”
Anyone with information can contact The American Philatelic Society at 814-933-3803, extension 246, or e-mail jenny@stamps.org.
