Posted on 11/10/2006 6:26:33 AM PST by Teflonic
The Inverted Jenny is among the most rare -- and valuable -- U.S. postal stamps.. And now one may have been found in Broward County -- among piles of absentee ballots from this week's election.
No one knows where the ballot came from. The person who cast the vote was not identified on the envelope containing the ballot, so the vote didn't count.
Now the stamp -- which may be worth at least $200,000 -- is locked up with the rest of the ballots, because by law it must be held for a designated amount of time.
County Commissioner John Rodstrom discovered the stamp on an envelope while reviewing absentee ballots on Tuesday. He was part of the canvassing board reviewing ballots collected at a Fort Lauderdale warehouse.
The three-member canvassing board, made up of the supervisor of elections, a county commissioner and a judge, certify election results.
What seemed like a small stamp collection on one envelope caught Rodstrom's eye about 8 p.m. At least one was from 1936, Rodstrom said. Then he noticed one had an upside-down World War I-era airplane -- the hallmark of an Inverted Jenny.
''I was a stamp collector when I was little. I recognized it,'' Rodstrom said.
For a half hour, Rodstrom kept talking about the stamp, said Broward County Court Judge Eric Beller, who also was on the board.
A Broward Sheriff's Office deputy -- and stamp collector -- at the site heard the board members talking about the possible Jenny. After hearing the description, he said the stamp would be very valuable if it was real.
But the ballot already was in a box and sealed.
''By that time we had already sealed the box, and once you seal the box under the election law you can't unseal it,'' Beller said. ``We looked at the election law to see if we could unseal it, and we didn't think we could.''
The Flying Jenny has a fascinating back story, said Maynard Guss, president of the Sunrise Stamp Club.
The 24-cent Jenny stamps were printed in 1918. Back then, stamp sheets were run through presses twice to process all the colors, Guss said. On one pass, four Jenny sheets went through backward. Inspectors caught the errors on three of the sheets and destroyed them, Guss said. Somehow, a sheet of 100 stamps got through.
Stamp collectors have spent the past 98 years trying to find them all, he said. Replicas are sold in stores and on auction websites like eBay.
But if it is real, this Jenny might not be as valuable as it could have been if it wasn't stamped. When the absentee ballot was mailed it was canceled, Rodstrom said, reducing its value.
Who did the person vote for?
Stamp collectors have spent the past 98 years trying to find them all, he said. Replicas are sold in stores and on auction websites like eBay.
98 years? Since 10 years before it was posted? It must have been a Broward county election official who did the math.
Pat Buchanan.
I spend so much time here at FR that I forget that some things were once printed on actual paper.
It was a dead person.
Yep. It's a fake. Someone's idea of a joke.
All my grandfather left me was the lousy 24 cent stamp!
She's out there somewhere now...driving around with her left turn-signal on.
My thought as well.
Just another voter.
Ignored. His/her vote cancelled by the bureacrazy.
Roosevelt........
Hmmm... I see your from Indiana and I've always wanted a scenic postcard from there...
What do you want, a round barn or a covered bridge? Pretty exciting stuff. I hope the 24 cent stamp covers the postage.
Inverted "Jenny" bump.
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