In My Opinion
With Sandra Pianin

When no other opinion matters.

Sandra Pianin is a freelance writer who lives in Queens, New York. Her work has appeared on many online sites with subjects from gardening to politics. In the past, she has been a reviewer for the High Definition Film Festival, the author of a Hollywood business column for www.matchflick.com and a web pundit for www.webpundit.net.

EDITORIAL OF THE WEEK

Was It Real Or Was It A Fake? 
 

The time is November 2006.  The unlikely scene is the Broward County Florida Elections Office.  County Canvassing Board Member, John Rodstrom, sees an odd looking stamp on the envelope of an absentee ballot.  The familiar stamps on the envelope were two stamps from the 1930's, another dating back to World War II and another adding up to .87 cents due for the price of postage.  John Rodstrom had collected stamps when he was a boy.  He finally recognized the last stamp on the envelope (with a picture of an upside-down biplane) as being a very rare and valuable stamp. What Mr. Rodstrom recollected from his childhood was that this stamp pictured the best-known error since the United States began producing postage in 1847.  The inverted center version of the 24 cent airmail stamp was released in 1918.  When a sharp-eyed 29 year old collector in Washington, DC spotted the error, he grabbed a full sheet of the stamps.  These are the only known examples of this sought after stamp with an error. In June 2005, a single copy of the stamp sold for $577,500.  This is a world record price for an unused postage stamp.  Four months later, a block of the "inverted Jenny" stamps sold for $2.9 million dollars. Rumors of the stamp's reemergence quickly spread via newspapers, television networks, and the worldwide web.  Along with the stamp story came speculation about where it had come from.  American Philatelic Society Executive Director, Peter Mastrangelo, offered the services of the APS in determining whether the stamp was genuine or a reproduction. On November 14, 2006, Mastrangelo and APS Executive Director, Ken Martin, told the story on The Today Show on NBC-TV.  It was determined that the stamp on the absentee ballot envelope was a reproduction. This mystery tale has started a resurgence of interest in stamp collecting which provides a wonderful educational view of geography and world history and affairs. ~*~Sandra Pianin ~*~

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