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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations June 11-12, 2005:

Flying High, And Upside Down

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

It's probably the most famous U-S stamp ever: A 1918 air mail stamp where the Curtiss 
Jenny airplane was printed upside-down - Inverted. Only a hundred copies were ever found, 
and collectors still know, 77 years later, where many of those stamps are and where 
they've been.

The Jenny Invert is back in the news because, recently, one of those stamps sold for more 
than half a million dollars. Not only is it the highest price ever paid for a Jenny Invert, 
it's also the highest price ever paid for a Twentieth-Century U-S stamp. In fact, it's the 
second highest price ever for any U-S stamp.

The last time this particular copy was sold, seven years ago, it went for just under 
200-thousand dollars. This time, it went for three times what was expected.

It could be this copy's high quality, the improving economy, or the weak U-S dollar. Or 
maybe people just want to own a piece of history.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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