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The 1918 `Inverted Jenny' is perhaps the
world's most famous stamp error.
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$200,000 stamp stuck in ballot box
FORT LAUDERDALE,
Fla. — A rare stamp that could be worth at least $200,000 may be on an
absentee-ballot envelope sealed in a box with other ballots from Tuesday's
election.
Broward County
Commissioner John Rodstrom discovered the stamp, which may be the famous
Inverted Jenny, while reviewing absentee ballots. There was no name on the
envelope so the vote didn't count. Rodstrom discussed the stamp with the other
members of the canvassing board — Broward County Court Judge Eric Beller and
the supervisor of elections. A stamp-collecting deputy overheard them and said
the stamp would be very valuable if it was real.
But it was too late.
"By that time we had already sealed the box. And once you seal the box,
under the election law you can't unseal it," Beller said.
The 24-cent Jenny
stamps were printed in 1918, said Maynard Guss, president of the Sunrise Stamp
Club. Stamp sheets were run through presses twice to process all the colours,
and on one pass, four Jenny sheets went through back-ward. Inspectors caught
the errors on three of the sheets and destroyed them, but somehow, a sheet of
100 stamps got through. Stamp collectors have spent the past 88 years trying to
find them all.
Associated Press
