Rare ‘Jenny’ Stamp Sold for $143,000

One of the most famous mistakes in postal history, a 1918 stamp depicting an upside-down Curtiss Jenny biplane, was sold at auction Saturday for $143,000.

The stamp went to an anonymous buyer who had bid by mail, said George Amick, a Trenton, N.J., newspaper editor who recently wrote a book about the Jenny stamps.

Only 100 of the 24-cent, air mail stamps were sold in 1918--all to the same sharp-eyed stamp collector--before the error was corrected. Ninety-six of the 100 stamps are known to remain.

In addition to the $130,000 selling price, the buyer must pay a 10% premium to the auction house, the Robert A. Siegel Auction Gallery, so the total cost will be $143,000.

The price was well below the record amount bid for a Jenny in 1982. That was $180,000 plus the 10% premium, or a total of $198,000.