The Dag Hammarskjold invert stamp error
Though errors on stamps are usually rare and expensive, there are luckily few exceptions. The United States “Dag Hammarskjold invert” error of 1962 was the first invert error to occur on any United States stamp since 1918 Inverted Jenny. And AFAIK, it is the second deliberately mass-produced error stamp worldwide (the first one I believe is DDR 5-year plan 20/24pfg definitive stamp).
Normal stamp
The 4c (standard letter rate at the time) commemorative honoring Dag Hammarskjöld, late Secretary General of the United Nations, was issued on Oct 23 1962. The stamp was printed on the Glori Press in a yellow, black and brown design on white paper. The print run was 121,440,00 stamps.
1962 US - 4c Dag Hammarskjold commemorative stamp. Catalog value 0.30€
The invert error and reprint
In early November 1962 a New Jersey jeweler named Leonard Sherman received stamps containing inverted center. The invert had occurred when some sheets of stamps were fed into the press backwards. At first there existed only 400 copies of “Hammarskjold inverts”.
But the Post Office Department did not wish to produce rarities to collector markets. In lead of postmaster general J. Edward Day, a special printing of 40,270,000 Dag Hammarskjold stamps identical to the invert errors was ordered. The reprint was issued to the public on 16 Nov 1962.
The value of newly found error melted away as there is no way to differentiate reprint from original error. The only exceptions are very few inverted copies having (clear) early date cancels and first day covers with inverted stamps – these are very scarce and fetch high prices.
1962 US - Dag hammarskjold commemorative stamp with inverted background. This is from special (re)print ordered by postmaster general. The invert has several subtypes, this is the most common of them (Michel 883 IIa). Catalog value 0.30€
Subtypes of invert
What many (especially non US-collectors) may not know is that there are 3 subtypes of the invert. The subtypes come from the the first vertical row of the pane where different position of the pane lead to birth of these varieties.
With the first subtype the width of white stripe on the design is 3.5mm, with second subtype it’s 11 – 11.5mm, and with third subtype it’s 9.75mm. Unfortunately I don’t have these subtypes to show (besides the first and most common subtype, see image above), but they can be seen on Paul Hennefeld’s collection.
Scott stamp catalogue does mention the subtypes, but AFAIK does not list them separately. Michel stamp catalogue on the other goes all the way, and lists and values the subtypes. The most common of these subtypes is IIa; the other subtypes are far more difficult to find due to much smaller print numbers (which is why they have a double of value in Michel).
PS. The stamp does contain one more error (though nowhere as interesting)… As Mr. Hammarskjöld was from Sweden, his lastname contains umlauts (very common here in Scandinavia). As all can see the stamp design does not contain them. I think these were left out for convenience of US speakers.
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The “Legends of the West” sheet, of which 150,000 of the Bill Pickett “error” were sold by the USPS in a lottery, could also loosely fall into this category.
Hi Keijo,
Another excellent post. I collect US but was unaware of these subtypes (I usually don’t look too closely at catalogue listings of modern stamps).
I was curious how the different subtypes were produced so I searched online and found that the panes/sheets (50 stamps) are printed 2×2=4 panes (200 subjects/stamps) at a time and then cut apart. The panes on the left give rise to one of the subtypes and the panes on the right give the other because of where the inverted yellow color lands on the full pane.
It becomes apparent when you compare the two types of sheets.
So, the subtypes IIa and IIb occur in equal amounts on a full pane but each are still 8 times less common then type I. Though, with 4mil issued each, they are still somewhat common.
Keep up the great posts,
David
Hi David,
you definitely came up with great additional information
That’s very interesting. I never knew about the post office deliberately diluting the value of the genuine errors. I bet the guy who found them was quite upset!
Hi Larry,
I know that Mr. Sherman tried to get a court order to prevent the reprint; but I don’t know if it was refused or simply requested at too late… AFAIK, the US Postal office did write a certificate of proof for his stamps at later time. But of course most of the potential value was gone…
Greetings,
Perhaps this off topic, but i offer the below story…
There is also a stamp from the 2008 “American Scientists” commemorative issue, that was produced with a known error. The “Gerty Cori” stamp from that set includes a chemical formula, which was discovered to be incorrect during the production process. But the “powers that be” opted to let it remain reasoning that only chemists would recognize it. So it is included on the entire run – with a “print quantity” of 28 million stamps listed for the set, that would presumably produce 7 million stamps of the Cori commemorative.
@Mike… Thanks for sharing. I confess that I would have had no idea that the formula was wrong, LOL.
Hi,
I have a full sheet of the Dag Hammarskjold stamps, that appear to be the “true error.” Based on the examples show in this blog, they are the middle example, or the top right block. They have the yellow numbers upside down on the perf. Is there a way to tell if they are the true original error, or the “intentional error?” There is a letter included with the stamps, indicating them being purchased as the Dag Hammarskjold misprints, signed and dated by the Philatelic Sales Agency. If they are the original, is there a significant value? Thanks!
@Andi… Image speaks more than thousand words, so please, could we have a picture (upload the image file to any photo sharing website, such as PhotoBucket, Picasa, Flickr, Facebook etc; and then come back here to post the URL of uploaded image file)
I’ve had one of the reprinted error stamps forever. Didn’t know there was more than one variety of reprinted error. It’s funny that one without the error has not come across my desk yet, even though I have a good percentage of the U.S. stamps from that era – Not that I’ve actually looked for one. I’m sure I could order one easily enough.