$200,000 stamp stuck in ballot box

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The 1918 `Inverted Jenny' is perhaps the 

world's most famous stamp error.

$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