1918
inverted jenny
us postage
stamp art

1918 CURTIS JN-4 BIPLANE 24 CENT STAMP

In recognition of the early years of airmail one stamp became known as the most famous airmail stamp ever printed in the United States. This stamp is known as, “The Inverted Jenny (also known as an Upside Down Jenny, Jenny Invert) [it] is a 24 cent United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918, in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design is printed upside-down it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately. (wikipedia.org/Inverted).

The airmail bi-plane is one of the “Curtis JN-4 “Jenny” bi-planes “built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.” It is said that, “Curtiss combined the best features of the model J and model N trainers, built for the Army and Navy, and began producing the JN or "Jenny" series of aircraft in 1915.” (Wikipedia.org/Curtis). There were approximately twenty-seven variants of this type of plane.

As airmail increased, “The Post Office finally decided to inaugurate regular service on May 15, 1918, flying between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. (Wikipedia.org/Inverted). They decided to print an airmail stamp for this new postage rate. The task was given to “Clair Aubrey Huston (a.k.a. Charles Aubrey Huston) [who] was an accomplished and chief postage stamp designer at the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) early in the 20th century.” (wikipedia.org/Clair).

It is mentioned that the engraving on the die was performed by Edward M. Hall, Edward Weeks and Marcus W. Baldwin. It is said that, “One detail of the plane engraving that has intrigued philatelists is the serial number on the fuselage. Number 38262 is the actual number assigned to one of the six mail planes purchased from the Curtiss company. In fact, it is the number of the first plane flown out of Washington, D.C., on 15 May 1918.” (invertedjenny.com/production).

Many stamps designed by Huston and later engraved were works of art that were produced without the convenience of computers. These were painstakingly created then printed using a flat-bed printing press. In the case of the Curtis JN-4 airplane airmail stamps, they had to be printed twice. Once for the color of the red frame and a second time for the blue color of the bi-plane image. This process is known as “an error-prone process that had resulted in invert errors in stamps of 1869 and 1901, and [with the Inverted Jenny stamps] at least three misprinted sheets were found during the production process and destroyed. It is believed that only one misprinted sheet of 100 stamps got through unnoticed.” The story behind the purchased misprinted sheet from the post office is that a, “Collector William T. Robey” … “had written to a friend on May 10 mentioning that it would pay to be on the lookout for inverts. On May 14, Robey went to the post office to buy the new stamps, and as he wrote later, when the clerk brought out a sheet of inverts, (my heart stood still).” (wikipedia.org/Inverted).

As time went on the stamps were sold and eventually some were stolen. These stamps that were printed in error have become some of the rarest U.S. postage stamps. In an article in June 2016 on nydailynews.com it revealed that “A rare stamp stolen in 1955 has finally been returned to its rightful owner, officials announced Thursday. The so-called "Inverted Jenny," was returned to the American Philatelic Research Library and comes from a sheet of 100 24-cent stamps that was printed in 1918”…“according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office, which worked with the FBI to coordinate its return.” “This "Inverted Jenny," nabbed during a stamp show 61 years ago, resurfaced in April when an auction house asked APRL to authenticate it. One "Inverted Jenny" stamp sold for $1.175 million during an auction Tuesday.” (nydailynews.com/rare-valuable).

Interestingly, there have been forgeries of these stamps made and some reproductions. Some unscrupulous people have purchased reproductions then later tried, or accomplished the sale of these as original stamps, defrauding the buyer who found out later that they had paid too much. Peter Winter was a well-known stamp reproducer. It is said that he had reproduced fifty different stamps in the 1980s that philatelists consider to be the most valuable type of stamps. It is stated that, “The stamps were offered as reproductions by Winter, but their lack of permanent identification made them easy objects of fraudulent activities targeted at unsuspecting collectors. Specialists may detect abnormal paper, indentations, lack of watermarks and other signs incongruent with authenticity.” (wikipedia.org/Peter). Recently, one “Inverted Jenny” Peter Winter forgery stamp was listed for sale on eBay for $225 and a block of four listed for $899.

In a 95th year commemoration of the real stamp, “On September 22, 2013, the United States Postal Service issued a souvenir sheet illustrating six examples of the inverted stamp denominated $2 instead of the original 24 cents. The sheets were sold at face value, $12 (the issue was sold only as souvenir sheets of six, and not as individual $2 stamps). Various special packaging’s for collectors were also offered for a premium.” (wikipedia.org/Inverted).

Although it would be exciting to browse through a stamp collection that you have inherited or purchased and find an authentic “Inverted Jenny” postage stamp, the probability is slim. As far as value is concerned, if you consider that as of 2020 one ounce of gold is selling for approximately $1600, a stamp that sells for over a million dollars is worth more than its weight in gold.

I was very intrigued by the design of the stamp. Having started drawing again using a digital monitor I wanted to draw my own 24 Cent, Curtis JN-4 biplane stamp like the “Inverted Jenny” stamp. What I discovered after about fifteen hours and drawing only about three quarters of the miniature piece of art to scale, is that I have great respect for the patience that the designers and engravers must have had one hundred years ago as well as other designers in the past who created stamps back in the late 1800’s. I have the convenience of using computer software that allows for removing mistakes and creating the designs, but it is still a mentally painstaking task. I could not imagine making a mistake a hundred years ago on something that must have taken many days to create, then having to re-design it all over again.

I finished my design after about twenty-two hours of drawing, with some subtle changes, so that it would not be misconstrued as an authentic 1918 “Inverted Jenny” postage stamp. When I finally printed it, I decided that I wanted a larger size, so that I could see the detail. It was then that I realized that it might have been easier to have drawn the image at the larger size in the first place. During the drawing process I saved the images in stages, so that if there was a mistake I could start again from the previous drawing. You can see the various stages of the process in the gallery of images. There were alterations that had to be made to the software font numbers and letters, since the font size and styles that were used one hundred years ago were not available in the software. I have drawn a similar biplane before for a children’s illustrated book, so this was not extremely difficult to draw, it just took a while to match the design of the Curtis JN-4. The perforations around the perimeter are simulated, but against the black background they appear to be real. I used a photoshop program to finalize the image and I am incredibly happy with the results. I now have it in a 4” x 6” picture frame in my office. The stamp drawing is about 3.25” wide by 2.875” high. In the photograph the picture frame glass has a slight glare, but it does not affect the actual printed image when you look at it in person.

I placed a watermark across the front of it for internet viewing, so that people do not borrow my drawing without my consent. I am making it available for purchase if you would like to add it to your artwork or stamp collection. I thought it might be an interesting gift for the stamp collector in the family or a way to encourage people of all ages to start a stamp collecting hobby.


Referenced Articles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_JN-4_Jenny

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Aubrey_Houston

https://invertedjenny.com/production

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/rare-valuable-inverted-jenny-stamp-stolen-1955-returned-article-1.2659185

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Winter_(philately)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny