Boston, MA — It is one of the world’s most well-known stamps. It can sell for up to one million dollars and fewer than one hundred exist worldwide. Issued on May 10, 1918, it is one of America’s first air mail stamps. A printing error, however, on one sheet of stamps caused the image of the plane (nicknamed the Jenny) to appear upside down. Stamp collectors know it as the “Inverted Jenny”.
From Thursday May 3 to Sunday, May 6, the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History at Regis College in Weston will display one of these philatelic rarities as it celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the delivery of mail by airplane in the United States.
The stamp is on loan from the American Philatelic Society in Pennsylvania and is part of the Museum’s exhibit about the history of delivery of mail by aircraft. Other extremely rare stamps and envelopes including an envelope that survived the crash of the Hindenburg from the Museum’s collection will also be on display.
In conjunction with the exhibit, the Museum is holding a free all-day symposium featuring talks by experts on Thursday May 3 about the history of air mail in the United States. The program starts at 10:00 and people are invited to attend one or all of the talks. More information on the schedule and speakers is on the museum web-site at www.spellmanmuseum.org.
The weekend will also the feature the debut of the new book Stamp of the Century by Kellen Diamanti and Deborah Fisher which describes the history of the Inverted Jenny stamp.
For the exhibit, the Museum will extend its hours and will be open from 10:00 to 5:00 from Thursday to Sunday, May 3 to 6 For more information call 617-784-5838 or email to Info@spellman.org.
For additional locations to deposit mail, customers are directed to usps.com and use Quick Tools to Find Locations. Use the dropdown for collection boxes or post offices to find alternate locations for secure mail deposits in the immediate area.
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