Inverted Jenny On Ebay? Fake: Removed From Ebay!

The seller does not state if this is a forgery /reproduction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/290610802513



It looks suspicious but is up to $27.01

The seller has some nice Romania stuff however...

Since these were NEVER reprinted it would be a Forgery. It is also not a very good one at that!

These stamps were never actually used were they? As far as I understand all are accounted for.

It is neat though.

Isn't that a cut line around the top of the frame?

People cut the center out, turned it upside down and sent these off to be canceled after the errors were discovered.

I think it's ironic that someone would attempt to fake the most famous stamp in history

I was actually interested in some of the sellers other (Romanian-Hungary)items, but when I saw the Jenny without proper description I decided against bidding - so he may in fact hurt himself, and make people wonder about the genuineness of his other items.

Most not all. I think 5 are missing incl. 1 that went into a vaccuum.




A quick look at the auction does not show any cut. but the printing of the ink penetrated the paper about the same as the cancel.

Now up to $36 (with 5 bids) and two days yet to go. It will be interesting to watch and see how far the auction will go with this.

Sure I read somewhere that past center cutouts were done so well that high powered microscopes were needed to detect how well the process was done. Even if a forger managed to get 1 a year to pass it would still have been good money. Have to admit this one looks good but I certainly wouldn't touch it . Can you imagine Molly Maid sucking one up with vaccuum , wonder if they are insured for that oooops.

Before breaking up the sheet, Eugene Klein penciled the back of each stamp with the position. Positions 49, 79 and 99 have never been seen since they were initially sold. Position 66 and 76 have not resurfsced since they were stolen from Mrs. Ethel McCoy on July 25, 1955. The McCoy stamps were a block of 4, positions 65-66/75-76, both position 65 and 75 have reappeared. Two stamps were reportly destroyed I believe 74 was the infamous vaccuum copy.

After the initial discovery on May 14, 1918 by William Robey, the Post Office Department had postal inspectors check all stock. It is reported that an additional 8 sheets with this error were found. They were immediately defaced and returned to Washington where they were destryed on July 11, 1918.

Russ, do you have a reference/citation for this? Thanks.

There is exactly one known genuine used inverted Jenny.

Edward Green's wife, Mabel, sent an airmail letter to Edward when he was away, and used one of the inverted Jennys laying around on his desk (apparently we are not the only collectors who leave stamps all over the desk :D ). Fortunately he was observant, and noticed the inverted Jenny on the envelope. He kept the used copy in a pendant on his watch chain.

Russ is correct, there are 7 inverted Jennys (out of the original discovered pane of 100) that were lost/stolen/destroyed.

Here's an excellent Siegel auction brochure (in pdf format) containing the entire story of the Inverted Jenny (with photographs and illustrations) that can be downloaded at this link:

http://www.siegelauctions.com/2011/...ale1010A.pdf

As for khj's question about the 8 sheets reportedly found and destroyed, refer to pages 9 and 11 of the above brochure where it states:

Somehow I don't see this going for 30 to 40 bucks if it is in fact genuine. Scott's shows new ones going for something over 150K. Like others, I am very interested to see what comes of this.

I seem to remember that the BEP reprinted 1 sheet for some exihibition and then locked it away or destroyed it. But, I could be thinking of another stamp.

khj, yes 7 are unaccounted for. The only thing I have down for the reference is that it was from the Philatelic Foundation. The details of the additional sheets found and destroyed was from the 1919 Postmaster General report to the House of representatives.