US 1869 30c 'Shield, Eagle & Flags' Invert

A design born of diplomacy

The 1869 Pictorial Issue was planned as a run of pictures from American history. The 15-cent showed Columbus landing, the 24-cent the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the 30-cent was to show a third Trumbull painting, the British surrender after the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Late in production the Post Office dropped the Burgoyne scene, fearing it would offend the British. The gap was filled by adapting the eagle-and-shield design of the 10-cent stamp, printed in red and surrounded by flags, stars and rays of light printed in blue.

The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum credits the British-born engraver Douglas S. Ronaldson with engraving the flags and lettering of the 30-cent; he had been sole engraver of the 10-cent. The four high values, 15, 24, 30 and 90 cents, were the first U.S. stamps printed in two colors, and each sheet went through the press twice.

Critics were unkind. In a press campaign that historians have linked to a rival printer who lost the contract, one writer likened the 30-cent design to "a bunch of rags hung out of a junk shop." The whole set was replaced in April 1870. The Postal Service finally issued the abandoned Saratoga design in 1994, as a one-dollar stamp printed in blue.

The 30-cent paid the double rate to France, where the single rate was 15 cents through December 31, 1869, and other heavy foreign or domestic mail. The National Postal Museum gives 244,110 as the number printed for the 30-cent issue. Philatelic historian Calvet M. Hahn, reconstructing the figures from Post Office reports and the printer's ledger sheets, gives 254,010 issued out of 619,500 printed. The two figures do not agree.

The flags turned upside down

On a few sheets of the 15-, 24- and 30-cent stamps the paper was fed into the press upside down for the second color, creating America's first invert errors. On the 30-cent the blue flags and rays end up inverted around the red eagle and shield. The National Postal Museum notes that the error is far more striking with the flags upside down. A dealer's description of the issue observes that the red denomination lettering runs into the blue flag printing, which made misregistration especially noticeable on this value.

The 30-cent was the last of the three inverts to come to light. The 15- and 24-cent inverts were reported in December 1870, while the 30-cent was first listed in a catalog in 1876, according to a 2016 summary of the census by a New York stamp firm.

The 90-cent Lincoln, the fourth bicolored value, has no known invert. Hahn records an 1891 sale offering of a 90-cent invert that the early specialist John N. Luff believed never existed, and Luff's account of a source who once saw sheets of all four bicolored values with inverted centers, which were burned. Inverted-center proofs of all four values, including the 90-cent, were made later and are not postage stamps.

From $30 to $600,000

Hahn traces the discovery copy to the Sanford collection, at whose sale E. B. Sterling of Trenton, New Jersey, bought it. When Sterling's stamps were sold on December 20, 1887, the 30-cent invert brought $30 from the collector William Thorne, and it was still listed as the only recorded example. A second, used copy sold in England in April 1888 for $35. By 1893 a superb copy from the de Coppet collection brought $220.

Unused copies surfaced later. Hahn writes that the first unused example known in England went into the collection of Thomas Tapling, now at the British Library, and that in 1891 a dealer who had handled several used copies bought a fine unused one out of a very small old collection, the first unused copy he had seen.

The finest of the seven unused copies, and the only one with original gum, came from the collection of George H. Worthington. In October 2013 it was offered in New York with a presale estimate of $1 million as part of a collection of six U.S. inverts, each with original gum. It sold for $600,000 hammer, plus buyer's premium.

The six unused copies without gum have changed hands steadily. One, described as one of the seven unused and graded Fine, brought $248,600 including a 13 percent buyer's premium at auction in New York on February 9, 2008, against an estimate of $75,000 to $100,000. A nearly perfectly centered copy, ex-Colonel Stillwell and bought by its consignor in 1975, sold in 2014 for $290,000. Another brought $270,000 plus premium in April 2016. In 2019 a copy ex-Ferrary, Colonel Green and John Fox, last offered in 1960 when it brought $6,000, sold for $287,500.

Counting and judging the 47

The census records 47 copies of the 30-cent invert: one with original gum, six unused without gum and 40 used. That makes it the scarcest of the three 1869 inverts in total, against about 100 recorded for the 15-cent and 94 for the 24-cent. A used copy is in the Miller Collection at the New York Public Library, and the National Postal Museum holds one in its Harry L. Jefferys Collection. A 2024 sale description also lists a used copy in the Tapling Collection, while Hahn describes the first Tapling copy as unused; the sources do not agree.

Soundness is the great divider. A 2014 description said that only the original-gum copy and one other unused copy were certainly sound, and that a third, potentially sound copy had not been seen since 1960. That copy, census 121b-UNC-04, reappeared in 2019 with a new certificate and was described as one of only three known sound unused copies. Among all copies available to collectors, a 2024 description counts only 13 as sound or potentially sound.

Used copies have their own sub-varieties. Only five of the 40 recorded used inverts are cancelled in red; the finest of them bears a red leaf cancel that was used in New York City on supplementary mail. Five are recorded as "wide-space" examples. One wide-space copy with a French Calais transit postmark brought $55,000 hammer in March 2011 and $45,000 in October 2024.

Genuine copies carry the G grill, used only on the 1869 issue, and are perforated 12. The ungrilled 1875 reissues and the inverted-center proofs printed after 1879 for Dr. James Petrie are different items.

The numbers

Issue date

Pictorial Issue began March 19, 1869; accepted earliest documented 30-cent use May 22, 1869

Quantity

244,110 printed for issue (National Postal Museum); 254,010 issued of 619,500 printed (Hahn)

Known inverts

47: 1 original gum, 6 unused without gum, 40 used

Paper and grill

G grill

Perforation

12

Sheet size

100 stamps

Colors

Blue (ultramarine) flags and frame, red (carmine) eagle and shield

Timeline

1. Dec 12, 1868

   The National Bank Note Company's contract for the 1869 issue is signed.

2. Mar 19, 1869

   The 1869 Pictorial Issue begins, according to a Post Office memorandum.

3. May 22, 1869

   Accepted earliest documented use of the 30-cent stamp.

4. Apr 1870

   Replacement stamps go on sale and the pictorials are withdrawn.

5. 1876

   The 30-cent invert is first listed in a catalog.

6. Dec 20, 1887

   The discovery copy sells for $30 to William Thorne, still the only recorded example.

7. Apr 1888

   A second, used copy sells in England for $35.

8. 1891

   A dealer buys an unused copy from a small old collection, the first unused one he had seen.

9. 1893

   A superb copy from the de Coppet collection brings $220.

10. 1960

    Unused copy 121b-UNC-04 sells for $6,000, then disappears from view for nearly 60 years.

11. 1994

    The Postal Service issues the abandoned 1869 Saratoga design as a one-dollar stamp.

12. Feb 9, 2008

    An unused copy without gum sells at auction in New York for $248,600.

13. Oct 9, 2013

    The unique original-gum copy is offered in New York with a $1 million estimate and sells for $600,000 hammer.

14. 2014

    A nearly perfectly centered unused copy sells for $290,000.

15. Apr 7, 2016

    An unused copy brings $270,000 plus premium.

16. 2019

    Copy 121b-UNC-04 reappears and sells for $287,500.

17. Oct 2024

    A wide-space used copy sells for $45,000.

The world in 1869

• Mar 18, 1869

  Dmitri Mendeleev presents his periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.

• Apr 6, 1869

  The American Museum of Natural History is founded in New York.

• May 10, 1869

  The first transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory, Utah.

• May 24, 1869

  John Wesley Powell sets out from Green River, Wyoming, to run the Green and Colorado Rivers.

• Sep 24, 1869

  Black Friday: the Fisk-Gould gold scandal sets off a financial panic.

• Nov 17, 1869

  The Suez Canal is inaugurated in Egypt.

• Dec 10, 1869

  Wyoming Territory gives women the right to vote, the first such law in the world.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, US 1869 30c 'Shield, Eagle & Flags' Invert is number 22 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (28 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 30-cent design exists only because the Post Office dropped a scene of the British surrender at Saratoga for fear of offending Britain.
• The discovery copy sold for $30 in 1887, when it was still the only one known.
• A critic compared the normal stamp to "a bunch of rags hung out of a junk shop."
• Only five of the 40 recorded used copies are cancelled in red.
• One unused copy vanished from view after a 1960 sale and resurfaced in 2019, confirmed as one of only three sound unused copies.
• No 90-cent invert has ever been found, though one was offered, and doubted, in 1891.