Trip To NY Post Office Pays Off With Valuable Jenny Reissue

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A collector credits a hunch with helping him land one of just 100 sheets of stamps recently issued by the United States Postal Service featuring a corrected version of its rare and famous error, the 1918 "inverted Jenny."

Art Van Riper bought the stamps in Waverly, N.Y., after reading that the postal service had printed a new batch of inverted Jenny stamps celebrating the 95-year-old edition that, by mistake, featured an upside-down biplane.

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I'm dubious. In order for the story to be true it requires that the Postal Service intentionally issued some rarities. Has any of this appeared in the philatelic press? E.g. What has Linn's reported about this kind of thing?

If you read the article, they did it on purpose. 100 sheets out of 2.2 million.

I read the article, and I noted the claim. But it is contrary to normal USPS policy to do such a thing as create intentional rarities. Ordinarily they don't like to get their fingers smacked by philatelists for manipulating the market. The general press is not as aware of the truth behind things like this as is the philatelic press, so I tend to hold reports like this at arms length until I find out what is/was reported in the philatelic press.

What can you tell us on that score?

We've talked about this in an inverted Jenny thread. It's really like playing an expensive lottery ($12.00) a pop except you can use them as postage.
Tom

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In a context like this, the expression "philatelic press" refers to any of the established philatelic publications that report such news. Linn's is the current big standard, but the Stamp Dealers Association has one, and there might be reports on something like this in Stamp Wholesaler. Since the sheet was issued a while ago, there was plenty of time for the "philatelic press" to have gotten wind of the USPS plan and published it. Did anyone here catch it? Can you give us a reference?

Can anyone link to the thread that discussed this earlier? Is it in this classics forum?

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I really don't think philatelists nor the philatelic press publications have much clout with the USPS anymore. The USPS does what it pleases at this point to make a buck.

Here is the link to the New York Times article back in October where the USPS talks about the distribution of those new issues:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/u...n.html?_r=1&

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The USPS has intentionally created and issued rarities in the past. Remember the Bugs Bunny imperforate pane which was issued several years ago in a 118,000 sheet quantity. It is virtually impossible, because of the way rotary dies are made, to create such a sheet accidentally. One has to actually and purposefully set up the die blades to accomplish this result.

Search "Bugs Bunny" to see other threads on this topic.

Donald

@lorddenning

No need to get your skivvies in a bind just because I asked for corroboration from philatelic sources. Historically they have a better track record for getting the stamp stories straight than does the popular press. But when you pointed to the item from the USPS itself, you set the record straight. Thank you for that. But the attitude you may kindly keep to yourself. You are the one who is being bombastic here.

As for the influence that collectors have on the USPS, there is still a Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee, and it does solicit input from philatelists. But overall it does appear that commerce has trumped philatelic advice for a long time now. Do you suppose that is a desperation move by the USPS, to throw off the reigns on their cash cow, or is it about something more nobly egalitarian? Really?

And from the NY times article cited above:

"The decision to intentionally produce an instant rarity, sure to rise drastically in price, is a reversal of past policy, when the Postal Service fought to keep valuable errors out of collectors' hands, even going to court to do so."

They are quite right about that. The overall impression I get from this is, desperate times call for desperate measures.

All about sales

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Here we go folks, our road to riches!

http://www.idealny.com/error/