Sale 1233 — Inverted Jenny Position 77 and William T. Robey Letters
Sale Date — Wednesday, 31 March, 2021
Category — William T. Robey Letters
U.S. government airmail flight cover from Philip H. Ward, Jr. to Colonel Edward H. R. Green with 24¢ 1918 Air Post stamp affixed upside down--an obvious salute to Colonel Green’s acquisition of the Inverted Jenny sheet24¢ Carmine Rose & Blue, 1918 Air Post (C3), affixed upside down and tied by “Air Mail Service Wash. N.Y. Phila. Phila. May 24 12 M 1918” duplex datestamp on cover with red Chelten Electric Co. return address and addressed to Colonel Edward H. R. Green in New York City, receiving backstamp of the same day, addressed in the handwriting of noted stamp dealer Philip H. Ward, Jr.
News that Colonel Green purchased the sheet of 100 Inverted Jenny stamps for $20,000 was reported on May 21, the same day William T. Robey and his father-in-law delivered the sheet to Eugene Klein and collected their $15,000 certified check (see page 28 of the printed catalogue for clipping from The New York Times).
This airmail cover was addressed and stamped by Ward, using one of the 24¢ stamps issued for the new government airmail service. Ward, one of the leading stamp dealers of the era, undoubtedly affixed the stamp upside down in a deliberate expression of humor and congratulations to Colonel Green. Ward also wrote the service directive “Via Air Plane” and mistakenly used “E. H. S.” for Green’s initials (they were E.H.R. for Edward Howland Robinson).
Of the flight covers prepared by Ward, this is the first we have seen with the stamp upside down.
