New Stamp Repeats Accident on Purpose

There’s a new stamp that tells the story of a postal mishap that happened in 1918. That year, the U.S. Post Office issued the Curtiss Jenny stamp to celebrate the United States’ first airmail delivery. The stamp was named after the Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane used for the flight.

But a printing error caused the image of the plane to be printed upside down on a few sheets of 100 stamps. One of those sheets was sold by accident at a The Washington Post office. The clerk had never seen an airplane before and didn’t notice the mistake.