New report brings upright Jenny Invert tally count to 43

By Jay Bigalke

Another new find of a pane of the upright $2 Jenny Invert variety has surfaced after the front-page report in the Oct. 3, 2022, issue of Linn’s about two other new finds.

After reading that article, a Colorado stamp collector contacted Linn’s to report the upright Jenny Invert variety pane he had received in 2019 after placing an order for the $2 Jenny Invert stamps via the United States Postal Service’s online postal store.

A photograph of his pane with the insert card is shown nearby.

The collector said that multiple efforts were made to contact the USPS to report his find using the phone number that no longer works. That number is blurred in the nearby illustration.

With this new report, Linn’s tally of the upright Jenny Invert variety panes reaches 43 of the panes; 40 of the panes have the certificates sent to collectors by Stamp Services.

The $2 Jenny Invert stamps (Scott 4806) were issued in panes of six on Sept. 22, 2013, as a tribute to America’s most famous stamp error. That 1918 24¢ Jenny Invert airmail stamp has its blue Jenny biplane accidentally printed upside down within the carmine rose frame (Scott C3a).

The $2 Jenny Invert stamps were at the center of a Postal Service promotional program that included just 100 specially printed panes intentionally showing the Jenny biplane in the center of each stamp flying right-side up. The regularly issued $2 stamp portrays the plane upside down.

Each of the 2.2 million panes of the 2013 issue was sealed in a printed paper envelope within a cellophane wrapping, thwarting efforts to detect the rare upright variety seeded among the common standard issue.

Collector demand for the limited upright variety pushed aftermarket values sky-high, with some public auctions seeing realizations of more than $50,000.

The 100 upright Jenny Invert panes were packaged with a card printed with a phone number the finder could call to receive a certificate signed by the U.S. postmaster general and to register the purchase and discovery. But because the registration is voluntary, it is presumed that some of the found panes were never recorded.

As a result, no one is sure how many have been found and how many remain undiscovered.

All the unsold panes at post offices were recalled and returned to Stamp Fulfillment Services in Kansas City, Mo., where they remain on sale.

A search for “Jenny” on the USPS Postal Store website on Dec. 20, 2022, showed the $2 Jenny Invert stamp still listed in the available online inventory.

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