INVERTED CENTER STAMPS OF THE WORLD

Stories Abound

Most inverts (here meaning "inverted centers"), have wonderful stories behind them. A book of 250 pages was written about the most famous of all inverts, titles Jenny! by George Amick. This book about the U.S. 24c air mail (1918) with the upside-down Jenny airplane, has a wealth of intriguing stories and most  unusual characteristics as these errors passed from hand to hand, climbing from 24c at birth to about $250,000 at today's price.

       A wealth of inverts information can also be found in "Sellinger's Inverted Center Stamps of the World catalogue" from which this whole excerpts have been copied. Also for more stories and background information, the Philatelic Gems series of five books published by Linns is truly helpful

        In many cases, experts disagree on whether the center or the frame is inverted ; in order to be sure, you must know how that particular sheet was fed into the presses the first and the second time

                        In 1854, someone turned the head of young Queen Victoria. This literally happened in India with one sheet ofthe 4 Anna’s value with the queen’s head upside down (Fig.1). There are only 30 of this invert known to exist and the going price is over $90,000.

                        Of  U.S. inverts, market value runs from 10c to $250,000 single stamps. No, 10c for a US is not a typographical error, it exists on the Hammarskjold issue of 1962 (fig2) do a story on the post office ruins Christmas

                       The error appeared in a few hands, the total count not much more than 100 stamps.

Overseas invert

    The Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika invert stamp has an intriguing story. An 8 year old boy found it in a cheap packet of stamps he bought from a dealer.

   It was tested and shown to experts, including the stamp’s printer, Thomas De La Rue. It was declared genuine but they could not explain how it happened, because the picture of the dam that was inverted on the stamp remained in its proper position and this was impossible.

     It must be possible because it exists in genuine form, but to date, there have only been theories. To add to the mystery, this is one of three inverts found of this stamp, although one theory holds that another 97 exist could exist.

     A footnote to this is that in 1983, a collector found another value from the this series, the 30c value, inverted. This collector had this stamp with some duplicates in an old notebook for 10 years until he discovered it.

          SCARCITY

       Inverted centers have always been scarce. There are many countries in which they don’t exist. In some countries such as Canada and Estonia, only one invert has been discovered.

       To the other extreme, there is Liberia where there are a multitude of inverts

        There have been countries such as Nyassa and Somali Coast where errors are produced and directed toward the collecting market.

        And you can find (not easily of course), inverts on commercial mail, which means it went unnoticed in the manner of the normal stamp.

         The Uruguay 1895 25c stamp picturing an inverted Amazon is a case in point. No one took notice of this error and all the copies had gone thruthe mails in the normal fashion. Not one of these exist in unused condition.

           FLAG INVERTS

    For the flag topicalists, there are the inverted flags of: U.S., 1869 30c flag with a huge price tag (PUT PIC) : the paraguay 1960 United nations issue and 3G, with  moderate prices; and Liberia1906 50c flag at a cheaper price

         For the Animal topicalist, ther is the giraffe and camel on the Nyassa and Somali Coast inverts, the Guatemala three Quetzal Bird inverts, and many from Liberia.

     Mexico enthusiasts have five inverts to shoot for: 1915 1 peso Lighthouse, 1916 5p Post office, 1921 10c Soldiers, 1929 Revolutionary Sinalo #2 Mexican Eagle, and the same stamp in e tete-beche  pair with the normal.

       Transportation topicals in inverts are rather expensive, such as the Pan-Am inverts of the U.S.,showing auto,ship and train. With the 24c Jenny invert added,you have a price tag of about $250,000 for each one.

      However, getting down to more moderate levels,you can have the bicycle of Cuba and the ships of Cook Islands, Estonia and Liberia.

      Although the Scott catalogue lists most of the known inverts, there are a number that are not included as listing or footnote.

UNDERPRICED

   Many foreign inverts are underpriced in catalogues, compared to retail ads and auction realizations. Surely we know demand greatly overshadows supply in stamps and most collectables.

       But here we find a contradiction; supply of inverted centers is very limited and demand for some foreign inverts is also limited, since they are rarely available. These items don’t change hands and therefore the price is stagnant.

          To illustrate this, lets refer to a rare invert from Bulgaria, Scott#97a. The stamp shows the czar with his cavalry, and the invert is called the inverted cavalry.

  Probably one sheet was mistakenly turned upside down when fed into the press for its second color. This 50s value from the 1911 definitive set, with its horses upside down, remained unnoticed from printer to control office to central post office.

   The errors, along with the normaldefinitives, were all broken up and used fro postage. It was not until 1918 that his error was discovered by a Sofia stamp dealer while examining a collection. There are only about 30 used copies existing.

   And, because this inverted center is rarely seen and more rarely changes hands,it is probably destined to remain at this relatively modest price for some time.

THE SEACRH FOR THE MISSING ELEPHANT

     Although there are several inverted Elephants on the stamps of Liberia, there is one that has eluded all collectors for 70 years, and most collectors for the past 17.  It is Scott#62a,issued in 1905, the 5c Ultramarine and Black showing an African elephant upsie down.

     It is believed that it was discovered in the stocks of the Liberian Post Office shortly after it was issued in 1905.  This sheet of 60 stamps showed the number 482 on one of its margin corners which means that this error occurred during the normal run of  printing this stamp. Although the stamps from this once unique sheet will forever be called “inverted Elephant” , it is actually the frame that is inverted.

     Getting back to its history as told Kasimir Bileski, this unique sheet of 60 inverted centers was acquired by the well known dealer, Philip Ward Jr. He sold it to its only owner who never publicized it, but kept it in his possession up to about 28 years ago.

However, it was probably Philip Ward who brought it to the attention of the Scott Catalog

and as Colonel Rogers remarked in the Century of Liberian philately book, Scott was the only one that listed it and that he himself had never seen a copy.

     Then Mr. Bileski, better known, better known by his intriguing advertising over the years as  “K. Bileski” bought the sheet intact by a private treaty transaction from the firm of H.R. Harmer about 28 years ago. At the time, Mr. Bileski stated that he also had never seen this stamp except that he did accumulate over 300 want lists for it over the years.  Mr. B. then proceeded to break up the sheet into 56 singles and one margin block of 4.  He sent out almost all the single copies to clients and advertised a few at $500 each.  He was pleased that he would make at least 56 people happy having one copy in their possession. In leaving one block of 4, he created a unique piece for posterity as well.

      In a descriptive explanation at the time, he wrote about the time and effort he put out in the vain search for this invert, as well as the hundreds of frustrated collectors  who couldn’t find one at any price.

      He also suggested its similarities to the U.S. 24c jenny invert error; that the Jenny sheet was sold at about the same time frame as the Elephant sheet; and was sold to Colonel Green by a friend of Philip Ward’s. And the differences, to wit that the elephant invert was almost twice as rare as the awesome inverted Jenny and for “almost 70 years far more elusive, as no one was able to buy a copy.”

      Of course, that is where the similarity ends; because rarity (supply) takes second place to demand in rare stamps as it does in most collectables. The demand for rare United States stamps overpowered  the supply of  the 100 inverted Jennys by so much that even the meager 60 stamps supply of these performing elephants  could not compete.  The market value of the Jenny is 200 times the value of even a jumbo elephant.

       Beauty and desirability  is in the eye of the beholder  and it is true  that in the world of collecting  inverted centers there is something for everyone. Each challenge has its own price tag.

             MORE ABOUT INVERTED CENTERS

        The Philip Ward auction of the George Tyler collection in November 1940 together with the prices realized, is a fascinating study because of the relative price appreciation between the price realizations of the 268 lots of inverts in 1940 and the prices of today. Most in this group have increased from 20 to 100 times the prices of 1940, while relatively few  have improved only about 5 times.