Dag Hammarskjöld invert facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dag Hammarskjöld invert |
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| Country of production | United States |
| Date of production | 23 October 1962 |
| Commemorates | Dag Hammarskjöld |
| Nature of rarity | Invert error |
| No. in existence | 40,270,000 |
| Face value | 4 US cents |
| Estimated value | US$ 0.50 |
The Dag Hammarskjöld invert is a special kind of postage stamp from the United States. It's called an "invert" because part of its design was printed upside down by mistake! This 4-cent stamp was released on October 23, 1962.
It was made to honor Dag Hammarskjöld, who was the leader of the United Nations. Sadly, he died in an airplane crash in 1961. The stamp shows his picture with a yellow background. The mistake was that the yellow background was printed upside down compared to the picture and words.
Contents
What is the Dag Hammarskjöld Invert?
This stamp is famous because of a printing mistake. The yellow background on some stamps was inverted, meaning it was upside down. This kind of error is called an "invert error" in stamp collecting.
The "Day's Folly"
The stamp is also known as Day's Folly. This name came from J. Edward Day, who was the Postmaster General at the time. He was in charge of the Post Office Department. When he found out about the mistake, he decided to do something very unusual.
He didn't want people to make a lot of money from the Post Office's mistake. So, he ordered millions of the inverted stamps to be reprinted on purpose! He said, "The Post Office Department is not running a jackpot operation." This meant he didn't want people to win a "jackpot" by finding a rare stamp.
Why Were More Inverted Stamps Made?
The Post Office Department deliberately reprinted the inverted stamps. They did this to make sure the error wasn't rare. If there were only a few upside-down stamps, they would be worth a lot of money. By printing 40 million more, they made sure the stamp wasn't rare at all.
This special reprint was released to the public on November 16, 1962. They called it a Special Printing. This was a very unusual move for a government agency.
How to Tell the Stamps Apart
The regular Dag Hammarskjöld stamp has a yellow background printed correctly. Stamp collectors use a special book called the Scott catalogue to identify stamps. The normal stamp is listed as number 1203. The inverted error stamp is number 1204.
Because so many inverted stamps were made, they are not worth much more than the regular ones. It's very hard to tell an original error stamp from one of the reprints. The only way to know for sure is if a stamp has a very early date on a first day cover. A first day cover is an envelope with a new stamp cancelled on its first day of release.
The Finder's Story
A jeweler from New Jersey named Leonard Sherman found the first sheet of these error stamps. He tried to stop the Post Office from reprinting them by getting a court order. But it was too late; the reprints were already being made.
However, the Post Office Department did give him a special paper. This paper said that his sheet was indeed from the original printing. In 1987, Leonard Sherman gave his original sheet of stamps to the American Philatelic Society. He did this because the reprints had ruined his dream of owning a very valuable stamp error.
Mad Magazine's Parody
The popular Mad magazine even made fun of the whole situation. They printed a fake stamp that looked like the real one. But instead of Dag Hammarskjöld, it showed a crying Leonard Sherman with money flying away from him!
