AR / ITEM / 00100401
Plate I
Inverted Jenny Plate Number Block
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
The plate number block from the only sheet of Inverted Jennies ever found, sold at Sotheby's in 2021 for $4.87 million, a record for an American philatelic item.
- Date
- Issued May 1918
- Reference
- Positions 87–88, 97–98
- Catalogue
- Inverted Jenny (24c airmail, 1918)
Record
William Robey bought the only sheet of 100 inverted 24-cent airmail stamps at a Washington post office on 14 May 1918 and sold it to the dealer Eugene Klein for $15,000; 'Colonel' Edward Green bought it for $20,000 and had it broken up, keeping the plate number block, then of eight. At the Green estate sale in 1944 the block went to Amos Eno, who had it reduced to four; it later spent some 35 years with the Weill Brothers of New Orleans, sold in 1989 for $1.1 million, and in 2005 to the bond investor Bill Gross for $2.97 million. Stuart Weitzman bought it privately in 2014 and sold it at Sotheby's on 8 June 2021, where it made about $4.87 million, bought by David Rubenstein according to Galerie.
- Culture
- American
- Origin
- United States
In the Tapestry
- Owned by · 1918–1936
- Edward Howland Robinson GreenAmedium confidence
- Owned by · 2014–2021
- Stuart WeitzmanC
- Associated with · 1918
- Washington, D.C.Amedium confidence
Provenance and history
1918
Sheet bought by Colonel Edward Green for $20,000A
Broken up; Green kept the plate number block.
14 May 1918
Sheet bought by William Robey at a Washington post officeA
Sold within days to Eugene Klein for $15,000.
1944
Bought by Amos Eno at the Green estate saleA
For $27,000; later reduced from eight stamps to four.
2005
Sold to Bill Gross for $2.97 millionC
After 35 years with the Weill Brothers and a 1989 sale for $1.1 million.
2014
Bought privately by Stuart WeitzmanC
8 June 2021
Sold at Sotheby's, New York, for about $4.87 millionB
A record for an American philatelic item.
Sources
- A
Wikipedia, 'Inverted Jenny'
↗ View original record - B
Galerie, 'Stuart Weitzman's Museum-Worthy Collection Sets New Auction World Records'
↗ View original record - C
Sotheby's, 'The Inverted Jenny Plate Block', Three Treasures – Collected by Stuart Weitzman (8 June 2021)
↗ View original record
