The CIA invert is a one-dollar value

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 ...

error issued by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

. It is one stamp from the Americana series that were produced between 1975 and 1981. The $1 colonial

rushlight A rushlight is a type of candle or miniature torch formed by soaking the dried pith of the rush plant in fat or grease. For several centuries, rushlights were a common source of artificial light for poor people throughout the British Isles. The ...

holder stamp was first issued on July 2, 1979, and one pane of 100 stamps was issued with the dark brown (the last color printed, though it covers much of the stamp) inverted. The lamp candle holder, candle outline and text are inverted relative to the flame. About 95 copies have been accounted for. The stamp's

Scott catalogue The Scott catalogue of postage stamps, published by Scott Publishing Company, now a subsidiary of Amos Media, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the world that its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in f ...

number is 1610c. This was the first United States stamp issued with a major design element printed upside down since the

Dag Hammarskjöld invert The Dag Hammarskjöld invert is a 4 cent value postage stamp error issued on 23 October 1962 by the United States Postal Service (then known as the Post Office Department) one year after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the U ...

error of 1962. As these $1 stamps were printed in sheets of 400, three additional panes of 100 stamps certainly existed at one time, but no trace of these has been discovered. When the one known pane of this invert was discovered, in the spring of 1986, it had already been on sale at the post office in

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxim ...

for some time without anyone noticing the error: indeed, five of its one hundred stamps had been sold by unsuspecting clerks, and the portion of the selvage bearing the plate number was no longer attached. In this incomplete form, the pane was purchased by an employee of the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

, who had been sent to the post office to buy stamps for the agency. The purchaser failed at first to notice that the flames were inverted relative to the candle holder and lettering. Only several days later was the error discovered, by a CIA employee who needed a $1 stamp for an agency mailing. Once this man had shared his information with eight colleagues, the nine decided to acquire the error stamps for themselves. Purchasing 95 normal $1 stamps, the group exchanged these for the CIA’s inverts. They then revealed their find to an

Annandale, Virginia Annandale () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia.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 ...

that is valued at $150,000, despite the fact that about the same number of each stamp exist. A block of four stamps sold in 2004 for $60,000 and a second block was sold in 2015 for $71,875. Reproductions have been sold on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

.https://www.ebay.com/itm/380155117179?mkevt=1&mkpid=2&emsid=e90001.m43.l1123&plmtId=700008&mesgId=3024&mkcid=8&ch=osgood&bu=43188348502&trkId=9ac1da05-a230-4b3f-851d-1bb9b0b05a18&cnvId=700003&recoId=380155117179&recoPos=1 Accessed 19 October 2022. The listing notes 74 reproductions sold.

Sources

External links

I is for invert

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cia Invert 1979 works Central Intelligence Agency Postage stamp invert errors Postage stamps of the United States

See also

Sources

External links