First of all-planes

With the development of scientific and technological progress, which rushed forward at a furious pace in the twentieth century, trade and economic relations are of paramount importance. Of course, everything is simple, if the type of relationship is reduced to the formula 'I'll go to the store, buy a loaf of bread'. But in the case when it comes to larger-scale operations, a more serious connection is needed. For this purpose, 'all the royal cavalry' is involved, and in the case of mail transport, 'heavy artillery' comes to the rescue.

In the United States in the 20s, aviation was involved in the transportation of mail cargo. The biplanes, designed by the American aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, have served a great service in this matter. It was only later that he founded his own corporation, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, and the young Curtiss began his career as a humble messenger for Western Union. Perhaps that was why the subject of mail forwarding was so close and understandable to him.

In 1915, Glenn Curtiss releases his 'Jenny' - the first biplane of the JN-4 series. 'Jenny' - that's what the Americans affectionately called the device. And many people started their 'sky career' with training flights on this model.

In 1910, the United States Postal Service decided to improve the transportation of an ever-increasing flow of correspondence, entrusting it not only to land roads, but also to air routes. The idea was quite successful, and in 1918 a regular air service was established between New York, Philadelphia and Washington. The first American air mail service took place in May 1918 on six specially converted Jenny biplanes.

Of course, the pleasure of receiving a letter much earlier than usual was much more expensive. For forwarding a letter from Washington to New York by land at that time, it was necessary to pay 3 cents. If the urgency was necessary, the correspondence was sent by air, and such a service cost 8 times more expensive, that is, 24 cents.

Naturally, postage stamps for such transportation required a new model. Moreover, they had to be developed quickly, and they should have been printed at all 'yesterday'. The US Post Office quickly developed a draft of a new stamp, which in patriotic red and blue tones depicted the same biplane JN-4 'Jenny'. Engraving began on May 4, and the first print run was already printed on the 10th.

The technology of making a two-color stamp, which was a 24-cent 'Jenny', involved re-running each sheet through the printing press. The first time the background was applied in red, the second time the image of the biplane itself was applied in blue.

Either the rush was to blame, or the day of the week was Friday, but the first few sheets (100 stamps each) turned out to be shifters. 'Genii' was released in an inverted form, however, only three of the four sheets were found and seized. The rest of the stamps were sent to the post offices of the country.Connoisseurs of philatelic rarities immediately understood what they were dealing with, and the discovered 'Inverted Jennies' disappeared from circulation literally in a day.

The fate of the shifters is worthy of a detective novel. They were collected, divided, resold, and in 1955, at a conference of philatelists in New York, four of them were even stolen. And to this day, somewhere 'walking' one unknown copy of the shifter.

In 2016, one of the missing stamps was put up for auction. Someone named Keelin O'Neill brought it to the auction house, claiming to have inherited the stamp from his grandfather. The Irishman realized that something was wrong when the guys from the FBI came to him, and was very surprised when he learned that it was a national treasure of the United States. The material value of the stamp today is estimated at about 175 thousand dollars, while its philatelic value is simply priceless.

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