1963 Dag Hammarskjold Stamp

I have inherited 16 full sheets of the 1963 4¢ Dag Hammarskjöld commemorative stamp and recently learned that this issue is known for a famous printing error involving an inverted yellow background. While I'm aware that the U.S. Postal Service intentionally reprinted millions of these stamps with the same inverted design to prevent collectors from profiting off the error, I'm unsure whether my sheets fall into the rare original error category or are part of the more common reprint. some sheets are in mint condition, and I would greatly appreciate any insight or guidance in identifying whether these stamps may be of special value or simply standard reprints.

* * * Misspelling in Subject corrected by Moderator for future searches * * *

Just so you know, you have made two threads with the same subject. Instead of creating a new thread, just reply to the other one, or visit the linked thread in the reply to your other thread.

In all fairness, he did not. The titles are almost the same and I do not get the title of his other thread when reading his post, but the posts are quite different.

@kmac, you might want to post pictures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dag_H...%B6ld_invert

It looks like you cannot discern between the printings and would need a cancellation before 16 November 1962 to be sure. Unless you have cancelled sheets, you, probably, cannot tell which printing it is.

Maybe some US expert knows of something this article missed.

They are not special and if they were, at this date, they cannot be proven to be special. Only copies held in museums and dated covers can be determined as the actual error. The reprinting effectively destroyed all value of surviving, if any, original errors.

Within the last 90 day one sheet sold on eBay*:





Of course at $4.99 less fees and the cost of free shipping (shipping paid by the seller out of the sales price) the seller got just about face value. You can achieve the same without all of the listing and mailing work, you can get the same value by using them on your mail.


*One framed sheet was also sold, but most of the cost covered the price of framing without consideration to the $2 mint sheet.

From Scott Catalogue "1203a (the error stamp) can only be collected on cover postmarked before November 16, 1962". Unless an unused stamp can be date to a date prior to Nov. 16 by some sort of provenance with evidence, it is undistinguishable from the second normal error printing.

Here is a first day cover of the deliberate error reissue. Note that if it was dated even one day earlier, it would be worth quite a bit.

Hi,

Removing the value from the equation, should be nice to see in period postally used on cover. Can be a nice addition to a collection. Even after November 16th.

Regards
Hornet

This thread shows several in-period uses...
https://goscf.com/t/82356

Hi john,

Thank you. Do you have something in the 4 cents era? Ended on January 6, 1963.

Nice covers and cards.

Regards

Hornet

To elaborate on Hornet's demand for those not deep into this stamp, the inverted Hammarskjold stamp was released on November 16, 1962 and the 4 cent first class letter rate ended on January 6, 1963. Thus a window of less than 2 months. This means many of the solo uses will be during the next rate period paying the 4 cent postcard or 3rd class rates. While I do not specifically collect these issues, I have tossed some aside over the years to have a few examples as any inverts are eye-candy:



One of the challenges of finding uses like this (and the Education and Winslow Homer issues, which have even shorter periods of use before the January 1963 rate change) is their nominal retail value for getting listed online. They are more likely to be encountered in a dealer's $1 box.

Hi John,

Wonderful!!

Regards

And that's exactly where this one came from ... out of a $1 box at last weekend's GASS show after other knowledgeable collectors had passed it by:

Hi John,

Awesome!!

Great posts John, thanks!