U.S. and Possessions Treasures of Philately from the Irwin Weinberg Inventory continued...

VERY FINE. A SOUND AND DISTINCTIVE EXAMPLE OF THE 1918 24-CENT INVERTED JENNY FROM THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER OF ROBY'S DISCOVERY SHEET OF 100.

The original sheet of one hundred Inverted Jenny errors was purchased by William T. Robey on 14 May 1918, the first day the stamps went on sale in all three principal airmail route cities: Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia. Robey bought the sheet for its $24 face value at the New York Avenue Post Office window in the District of Columbia. Soon after, the sheet was sold to Colonel Edward H. R. Green through Eugene Klein, a Philadelphia stamp dealer. Green paid $20,000 for Robey’s sheet, then instructed Klein to divide it into singles and blocks, and to sell all but a few key position blocks. It is possible to reconstruct the Inverted Jenny sheet with photographs of the singles and blocks (see the reconstruction at https://invertedjenny.com/salerecords ).

Despite the great rarity and value of Inverted Jenny stamps, many of the original hundred have been mistreated by collectors over the years. Colonel Green himself allowed moisture to affect some of the stamps he retained. Eight straight-edge copies that Klein was unable to sell and returned to Colonel Green were found in Green’s estate stuck together in an envelope (they were soaked and lost their gum). Other examples have become slightly toned from improper storage and climatic conditions. Hinge removal has caused thins and creases in numerous stamps, and one was physically Scotch-taped to an exhibit page. Another was nearly lost to philately forever when it was swept up in a vacuum cleaner. Finally, with the discovery of a third stamp from the stolen McCoy block--recognized by The Philatelic Foundation’s expert staff when it was submitted by an auction firm--only one purloined Inverted Jenny remains at large.

The stamp offered here -- Position 100 -- was first offered in auction at the October 1945 sale of the Colonel Green collection, when it was still part of a pair with the stamp above, Position 90. A stipulation of the offering was that the pair would be broken only if bids for singles exceeded those for the pair. It was separated from Position 90 shortly after the auction. It next appeared at auction in the 1961 Kessler auction of the Rafael Oriol Collection, who had brought his stamp collection with him when fleeing Cuban nationalization in 1959. Position 100 next appeared in the 1982 Siegel auction of the Martin L. Butzel Collection of Worldwide Air Post, where it sold to Irwin Weinberg, who later traded it to Kenneth Wenger for a stamp collection and cash. It was offered in the Bennett auctions of the Michael D. Rubin and Ron L. Scott collections, and purchased again by Mr. Weinberg.

With 1999 P.F. certificate which states "Genuine, Previously Hinged" (Image)

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