An Inverted Jenny Surfaces | Hacker News Reader

An Inverted Jenny Surfaces

nytimes.com

42 pointse15ctr0n14 comments

"“The owner was even afraid of handling it,” Mr. Lyons said. “He asked me to come and get it. I said, ‘Put it in a FedEx envelope and send it to me.’ He said, ‘I’m not doing that.’”"

I cant believe he even asked him to do this. Placing a stamp worth anywhere from $300,000 to $1,300,000 into a FexEx envelope? The risk of loss, damage or theft would have been too high.

Placing a stamp worth anywhere from $300,000 to $1,300,000 into a FexEx envelope? The risk of loss, damage or theft would have been too high.

Loss and damage I agree with, but the risk of theft might be relatively low purely because the number of people who would be able to recognise and know the value of a rare stamp is probably a very small minority.

(Count me as one of those who clicked on this article purely to find out what an "Inverted Jenny" is. My far-off guesses were topology (Jenny Surfaces?) and textile machinery.)

Are there any weekend moderators these days? "Extremely rare Inverted Jenny stamp surfaces" would be a better HN title.

I was thinking of a phone number popularized in a song that is calling everyone else.

"The dealer he sold them to quickly resold them, for $20,000, but not before writing little numbers on the back of each stamp. The number “49” was visible on the stamp in the cellphone photo."

Hah what a great story, I love how the small act of numbering each of the 100 on the sheet by a stamp dealer in 1918 has contributed so much to tracking the stamps

Marking up a rare find like this seems like a good way to perceivable ruin a rarity. But in time it turned out to be invaluable and became a part of their story.

Collecting pricey stamps these days is a huge problem because the fakes are so good.

But with the Jennys being numbered and so valuable, it'd be pretty hard to fake them.

It isn’t a secret that the stamps are numbered, or what numbers are missing.

You can’t make hundreds of fakes, but until recently, you could make 2, and this might be one of them. If this stamp sells for a million, which doesn’t seem unlikely, spending $100k or even $200k on a fake and its fake background story may seem a good investment.

There’s also the ”the man […] could not explain why his father never put it in an album with his other stamps.” remark. That’s very good for keeping the stamp in good condition, increasing its value for collectors, so if that is exceptional for a stamp collector, I would be extra suspicious of it being a fake.

The more value the stamp has, the more resources can be applied to determining if it is fake. That's all I meant. The sweet spot for counterfeiting would be where making it doesn't cost more than a certain percentage of what the real one is worth, while not making it worthwhile to spend money detecting the fake.

Stamp collecting gets pretty dodgy if you're collecting ones worth more than a few bucks. First off, there's the problem of counterfeits. Next, even if the stamp is genuine, the grade of a stamp is a matter of opinion, and they'll sell you a stamp of a high grade, but insist it is lower when selling it back. Lastly, subtle variations in the color can dramatically shift its value (for genuine stamps) and of course color is a matter of opinion just like grade.

”The more value the stamp has, the more resources can be applied to determining if it is fake.”

True, but that doesn’t work that well for paintings. Why would it work better for stamps?

I would guess that because this particular item was part of a botched mass-production run it might be possible to perform checks that are not available for a piece of art. Do the edges of #49 match up with any other available samples? Beyond simple chemical tests that will be performed is it possible to match up the actual paper fibers; both directionality and even if cut lines in fibers match up with edges of the stamps around it on the master sheet?

In addition to testing it like a piece of art you can also test it as if it were a piece of a puzzle (the master sheet) to make sure it fits into place. I am not sure if the information necessary to fake this is out there or not, but the fact that this stamp is cut out of a sheet makes it a bit different than a painting.

Why do stamps remind me of Bitcoin?

Value based only on consensus and artificial scarcity?

That's a criticism that could be placed on any collectors markets. Star Wars toys, Beanie Babies (actually are worthless), Coke bottles, comics.

The main difference is, good collections usually aren't just about speculation. People really enjoy watching Star Wars, drinking Coke and reading comics. The collection is an extension of their enjoyment. Even if the collection keeps no value beyond what they paid, people had a good time.

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