24c Carmine Rose & Blue, 1918 Air Post, Grounded Plane (C3 var). Mint N.H., plane dramatically shifted downwards with wheels well into "Cents", pencil "87" position number on back from the Sanabria sheet

VERY FINE. A DRAMATIC EXAMPLE OF THE GROUNDED PLANE VARIETY FROM THE SANABRIA SHEET.

The true Grounded Plane stamps, in which the wheels of the plane break thru the top of "Cents", come from portions of three sheets. The discovery sheet was owned and broken up by J. Klemann of Nassau Stamp Company. A second sheet was discovered in 1946 and sold in the Thomas A. Matthews sale (H.R. Harmer, Nov. 4, 1964), where it was purchased by Georges A. Medawar, publisher of Sanabria Airmail Catalogue. In Linn's Stamp News of April 21, 1986, specialist Joseph R. Kirker Jr. published his research revealing a third source of this variety.

Sanabria backstamp and pencil notation of plate position on back.

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