The 1918 Curtiss Jenny Air Mail Stamps were a set of three

Airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

s issued by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1918. The 24¢ variety was the first of the stamps to be issued, and was in fact, America's first

Airmail stamp An airmail stamp is a postage stamp intended to pay either an airmail fee that is charged in addition to the surface rate, or the full airmail rate, for an item of mail to be transported by air. Airmail stamps should not be confused with airma ...

. (The world's first airmail stamp was issued by Italy in 1917). The 16¢ and 6¢ varieties were issued later in the year to reflect reductions in the postage rate. It features the image of the

Curtiss JN-4 The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for th ...

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...

. The order of the Scott Catalog numbers for these stamps (C1 through C3) is the inverse of the order of release dates for the stamps.

Individual stamp designs

Inverted Jenny error

A single sheet of 100 of the two-color 24¢ was printed with the center design inverted, thus creating the

Inverted Jenny The Inverted Jenny (also known as an Upside Down Jenny, Jenny Invert) is a 24 cent United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918, in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design is printed upside-down; it is ...

References

External links

InvertedJenny.com

Kenmore Stamp article
{{Postage stamps of the United States Postage stamps of the United States Curtiss Jenny Airmail Stamps, 1918 Airmail stamps