wooster stamp show
It began with a U.S. Postal Service printing error and ended with a stamp so rare, it is considered the Honus Wagner rookie card of stamp collecting.The Inverted Jenny, the first American airmail stamp, sold for 24 cents when it was first released in 1918 to mark the advent of air service from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia to New York City.
Problem was, the Curtiss Jenny biplane image on the stamp somehow got printed upside down. A postal patron caught the error, but not before 100 of the stamps were sold. Over the years, the stories of the surviving Inverted Jennys have turned into urban legends – one was stolen, another sucked into a vacuum cleaner.
Last month, the Postal Service commemorated perhaps its greatest error but issuing reproductions of the stamp, which now sells for $2.
But owning one of the originals is every stamp collector’s dream, said Randy Sigler, co-acting president of the Wooster Stamp Club. And the stamp will be the centerpiece of this year’s Woopex stamp show, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Oct. 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Ida Sue School gymnasium on Oldman Road in Wooster.
Although he has collected stamps for 40-plus years, Sigler said, the Inverted Jenny is the one he’d most like to have. Considering one of the originals sold for nearly $1 million in 2007, Sigler said, he and fellow collectors “always laugh (at the idea of having one), because we’d be able to retire after that.”
In the meantime, Sigler has kept himself plenty busy collecting stamps from countries around the world and sharing his love of collecting with the Wooster club, which is roughly 50 years old. There are currently 30 members who meet the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. (except in August and December) at Trinity United Church of Christ at the corner of North and Buckeye streets.
The annual Woopex attracts roughly 500 visitors from both Wayne and surrounding counties, as well as from as far away as California, Nebraska, and New York. It is considered a small show, he said, and most of the dealers in attendance are from Ohio. Lots of stamps will go for just a penny and a kids’ table is set up with free offerings for a youngster just getting started.
“It is a great place,” Sigler said, “to start a collection.”
Sigler’s own collection was started with the help of his grandmother and opened up new worlds for him as a child. “It taught me the world, basically, when I was a kid,” said Sigler. “I couldn’t get over there was a country called Chile when I was a kid. That was something you ate.” He recalled his grandmother had a number of pen pals from different countries, so stamps were always coming in.
Other collectors may go for stamps of plants, or reptiles, or world leaders, Sigler said, while other put more emphasis on the cancel stamps. In the age of email and electronic business transactions, “it is harder to get a stamp used now,” Sigler said, “than mint from the post office.”
He noted that a postal worker will volunteer at the show on both days, when a special envelope with the new $2 Inverted Jenny will be sold for $3. Each one purchased will have a special Wooster, Ohio cancellation, he said.
In addition to the stamp sales and displays, Sigler noted attendees can also learn the ins and outs of stamp preservation, including the trick to how to get a self-adhesive stamp off an envelope.
Sigler lauded the administration at Ida Sue School, which hosts the Woopex each year, as well as postal workers from both Smithville and Wooster, and Ryan’s, which provides refreshments for the free event.
Even non-collectors should stop in and see and buy the re-released Inverted Jenny, Sigler said. “It’s definitely a collectible. Everybody should have it, if for nothing else than to tell their grandkids about the mistake.”