Rare 'Inverted Jenny' Stamp Turns Up 60 Years After Theft 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Spink USA/AP Spink USA/AP 
 
 In 1955, a block of four rare postage stamps was stolen from a display case at a convention. Over the years, two were recovered, but there were no signs of the others — until now. 
 
 Six decades after the heist, one of the "inverted Jenny" stamps has surfaced at a New York auction house. 
 
 "It's one of the most notorious crimes in philatelic history, and there's a piece of the puzzle now that's in place," said Scott English, the administrator of the American Philatelic Research Library, according to The Associated Press. 
 
 As NPR reported eight years ago when another "inverted Jenny" hit the auction block, the red and blue stamps bearing an "upside-down image of a Curtiss JN-4H biplane" existed because of a printing mistake. 
 
 The accident has fueled decades of stamp lore — and millions of dollars in transactions. NPR reported that one stamp sold for close to $1 million. In 2008, we reported on the stamps' provenance: 
 
 "It was in 1918 that stamp collector William Robey went to the New York Avenue post office in Washington, D.C., to buy a sheet of the first airmail stamps. He paid $24 for 100 stamps and was handed a sheet of stamps that featured the upside-down aircraft. It's the only sheet with the mistake to survive. "And it was an instant windfall. Robey sold it for $15,000." 
 
 There are other known "inverted Jenny" stamps from that sheet of 100, but this newly discovered stamp is from the stolen block of four. 
 
 "After careful expert examination the rarity was determined to be position 76 in the pane of 100 subjects," the Spink USA auction house said in a press release. 
 
 The AP reports that the would-be seller of the latest stamp discovered is a man in his 20s who lives in the U.K. and said he "had inherited it from his grandfather and knew little about it." 
 
 English will work with Spink USA and federal authorities to take possession of the stamp "once legal matters are settled," according to the auction house's press release. 
 
 The collector who owned the stamps when they were stolen in the '50s was a woman named Ethel McCoy and the press release says they were her "most prized possession." Though one of the four stamps surfaced in her lifetime, she was unable to get it back. In a 2014 article on the stolen postage, The New York Times wrote: 
 
 "In 1958, the first of the four stamps resurfaced, separated from its siblings, in the possession of a Chicago stamp dealer named Louis Castelli. Experts, comparing details like the perforations around the stamp's edge and flyspeck variations in its printing to photographs of the stolen block, were in no doubt as to its identity. "How Mr. Castelli had obtained it was not adequately explained, but the F.B.I. declined to pursue the matter, unsure whether the single stamp's value at the time passed the $5,000 threshold allowing it to investigate." 
 
 When Castelli tried to sell the stamp again some 20 years later, the FBI seized it, the newspaper wrote. McCoy had the stamps insured and part of the agreement with the insurance company stipulated that if the stamps ever surfaced, they would be purchased on her behalf. But by the time that one stamp turned up, McCoy was close to 80 years old and couldn't remember the name of the insurance company, the Times reported, adding that the firm never came forward to help her with the claim. 
 
 After McCoy's death in 1980, another of the four stolen stamps was recovered in 1982, Spink USA says in its release. 
 
 In the philatelic world, the "inverted Jenny" stamps are some of the most famous and highly coveted, but their renown has also seeped into popular culture. For example, in one episode of The Simpsons, Homer finds a sheet of the stamps — along with a Stradivarius violin and an original copy of the Declaration of Independence — but he doesn't recognize the value of his find and dismisses them. ||||| This undated photo provided by Spink, USA, shows a 1918 "inverted Jenny" stamp. Stolen in 1955, the stamp surfaced last week at Spink USA, a New York auction house. Considered America's most famous stamp,... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo provided by Spink, USA, shows a 1918 "inverted Jenny" stamp. Stolen in 1955, the stamp surfaced last week at Spink USA, a New York auction house. Considered America's most famous stamp,... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — Opening a new chapter in an infamous stamp-world mystery, a valuable "inverted Jenny" stamp has surfaced six decades after it was stolen from a collectors' convention. 
 
 The stamp — one of the world's most famous pieces of postage — was among four of its kind taken from a 1955 collectors' convention. While two were recovered over 30 years ago, there had been no sign of the others until this one was submitted to a New York auction house this month and authenticated. 
 
 "It's one of the most notorious crimes in philatelic history, and there's a piece of the puzzle now that's in place," said Scott English, the administrator of the American Philatelic Research Library, which owns the stamp and is working with auctioneers Spink USA and federal authorities to recover it. 
 
 The would-be consigner, a man in his 20s who lives in the United Kingdom, said he'd inherited the stamp from his grandfather and knew little about it, said George Eveleth, head of Spink USA's philatelic department. He said authorities had told the auctioneers not to release the name of the consigner, who is in his 20s. 
 
 While it's unclear whether the man can shed any light on the long-cold trail to the thieves, the stamp was accompanied by an intriguing item: a 1965 letter about a monetary loan from a noted stamp dealer to a well-known auctioneer, both now dead, Eveleth said. The letter isn't necessarily connected to this stamp, however. 
 
 Still, the Bellefonte, Pennsylvania-based philatelic library hopes the stamp's discovery could lead to new clues. 
 
 "We're going to remain optimistic," English said. "Because think about it: Here we are, 61 years later, and a stamp has appeared." 
 
 Worth 24 cents when issued in 1918, inverted Jenny stamps fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars today. While other stamps are rarer, the Jenny is one of few that is readily recognized even by non-collectors, Eveleth said. 
 
 It made its way into popular culture in movies such as 1985's "Brewster's Millions," in which Richard Pryor's character uses one to mail a postcard, and television shows including "The Simpsons," in which Homer Simpson finds but disregards a sheet of them at a flea market. The Postal Service issued a commemorative inverted Jenny stamp in 2013. 
 
 The original was made to celebrate the launch of U.S. air mail. Some were printed with the Curtiss JN-4H "Jenny" biplane inverted, and a savvy customer bought a 100-stamp sheet before anyone realized the error. 
 
 Over the years, they were separated, coveted, counterfeited and narrowly saved from the blitzkrieg of London in World War II and from a flood in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 
 
 A block of four was on loan to the American Philatelic Society when stolen from a display case at its 1955 convention in Norfolk, Virginia. The lender, who died in 1980, gave her rights to the stolen stamps to the society, which shares some ties with the American Philatelic Research Library. 
 
 Two of the Jenny stamps were recovered in the '70s and '80s from different Chicago stamp connoisseurs, who said they'd bought the stamps from people who had since died or whose names they didn't know, according to a 2014 article in American Philatelist, the society's journal. 
 
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 Reach Jennifer Peltz on Twitter @ jennpeltz. 
 
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 This story has been corrected to show that the stamp surfaced this month, not last week, and that the American Philatelic Research Library is based in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, not Philadelphia.
– An incredibly rare and valuable stamp stolen right out of its exhibition frame at a 1955 convention resurfaced this month in New York and has promptly rocked the philatelic world. "Inverted Jenny" stamps are considered the most famous in America: A printing accident in 1918 produced a single sheet of 100 of the stamps, each featuring an upside-down Curtiss JN-4H biplane, NPR explains. In 1955, someone swiped a block of four from the collection of Ethel Stewart McCoy, whose father was a Dow Jones founder. It is "one of the most notorious crimes in philatelic history," Scott English, administrator of the American Philatelic Research Library, tells the AP. The stamp was submitted this month to New York auction house Spink USA by an unnamed man in his 20s who hails from the UK and says he inherited it from his grandfather; it's unclear if he knew it was stolen. A press release from Spink USA states that the inverted Jenny was "determined to be position 76 in the pane of 100 subjects"—the one in the bottom right of the block of four stolen. Identification took some sleuthing: In a long-ago attempt to disguise it, the stamp "had been reperforated at right and most of the gum was removed, so the pencil position numbers written on the gummed side had been lost." Positions 75 and 65 turned up in 1958 and 1982, respectively, and the new discovery leaves only one of the four stolen stamps unaccounted for. (In 2014, a dealer offered a $50,000 reward for the missing inverted Jennies.) The American Philatelic Research Library at the American Philatelic Society was given rights to the stamps by McCoy, who died in 1980, and is working with the auction house to take possession of the stamp. (By one measure, this stamp is the most expensive thing ever sold.)