US 1962 4c Dag Hammarskjold Invert

A stamp for a fallen peacemaker

Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden became the second Secretary-General of the United Nations on April 10, 1953, at 47 the youngest person ever elected to the post. On September 18, 1961, he was killed when his plane crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, while he was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo crisis. All 16 people on board died. He was awarded the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize after his death, the only person to receive it posthumously.

The United States honored him a year later with a 4-cent commemorative stamp. Designed by Herbert Sanborn and engraved by C. A. Brooks, it shows Hammarskjöld beside the United Nations headquarters in New York, printed in black, brown and yellow. It went on sale on October 23, 1962.

The stamp was printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on its Giori press from plates of 200 stamps divided into four panes of 50. A total of 121,440,000 normal stamps were printed.

The sheet that came out wrong

At least one sheet left the printer with the yellow background upside down relative to the portrait and the lettering. The result is easy to see: a white 'shadow' appears beside the United Nations building where the yellow should be.

Leonard Sherman, a New Jersey jeweler, found a pane of the error. One account says he paid $2 for it at the post office, the face value of 50 four-cent stamps. Sherman announced his find.

How many original error stamps were printed has never been recorded.

'Not running a jackpot operation'

Postmaster General J. Edward Day decided that no one should profit from the Post Office's mistake. Instead of recalling the error, he ordered the stamp printed again with the yellow deliberately inverted, so many copies would exist that the error would be worth no more than face value. 'The Post Office Department is not running a jackpot operation,' he said.

The reprints, 40,270,000 of them, went on sale on November 16, 1962, less than a month after the original issue, and were described as a 'Special Printing.' Collectors nicknamed it 'Day's Folly.'

Sherman went to court for an injunction to stop the reprinting, but it came too late to stop production. He did get an affidavit from the Post Office Department confirming that his sheet came from the original printing. In 1987 he donated it to the American Philatelic Society.

Day served as Postmaster General from January 21, 1961, to August 9, 1963, and is best remembered for introducing ZIP codes.

Original or reprint?

The main catalog lists the normal stamp as 1203 and the invert as 1204, and values the invert at little more than the normal stamp. An original error and a reprint look virtually the same, so a loose stamp cannot be identified as an original.

The exception is a cover. A first day cover, or any cover with a clear postmark dated before November 16, 1962, proves the stamp came from the original error printing. One invert on a first day cover sold in 2005 for $3,500.

The reprint itself has collectible varieties based on where the stamp sat on the pane. On 40 of every 50 stamps, the yellow is shifted about 3 mm; on 10, the gap is about 10 mm because of the gutter; on another 10, no yellow appears in the left margin. One catalog account puts the totals at 32,216,000, 4,027,000 and 4,027,000. None of them is scarce.

An error in the middle of a crisis

The stamp went on sale on October 23, 1962, in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which began on October 16 when President Kennedy learned of Soviet missiles in Cuba and ended on October 28 when Nikita Khrushchev announced their removal.

It was also the year John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, and the year the Telstar communications satellite was launched. Against that backdrop, the Post Office's reprint became a small but lasting story about government and collectors.

The rarity that never was

The Hammarskjöld invert became the textbook case of how a postal authority can erase a windfall. Day's decision meant that the most famous U.S. error of its time is one of the cheapest: mint singles are offered by U.S. dealers for well under a dollar.

The affair entered popular culture. Mad magazine printed a parody stamp that looked like the real one but showed a crying Sherman, with money flying away from him, in place of Hammarskjöld.

The next U.S. stamp issued with a major design element printed upside down was the so-called CIA invert, discovered years later.

The numbers

Original issue date

October 23, 1962 (normal stamp, catalog 1203)

Reprint issue date

November 16, 1962 (invert, catalog 1204)

Quantity of inverts

40,270,000 deliberate reprints; number of original errors unknown

Normal stamps printed

121,440,000

Press and format

Giori press; 200-subject plates, four panes of 50 (5 x 10)

Perforation

11

Colors

Black, brown and yellow

Printer

Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Timeline

1. Apr 10, 1953

   Dag Hammarskjöld becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2. Sep 18, 1961

   Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia.

3. 1961

   He is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.

4. Oct 23, 1962

   The 4-cent Hammarskjöld stamp goes on sale; at least one sheet has the yellow inverted.

5. 1962

   Leonard Sherman, a New Jersey jeweler, announces his discovery of the error.

6. 1962

   Postmaster General J. Edward Day orders the invert reprinted; Sherman seeks an injunction, too late to stop it.

7. Nov 16, 1962

   40,270,000 deliberate inverts go on sale as a 'Special Printing.'

8. Aug 9, 1963

   Day leaves office as Postmaster General.

9. 1987

   Sherman donates his original sheet to the American Philatelic Society.

10. 2005

    An original invert on a first day cover sells for $3,500.

The world in 1962

• Feb 20, 1962

  John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.

• Jul 5, 1962

  Algeria becomes independent from France.

• Jul 10, 1962

  The Telstar communications satellite is launched.

• Aug 5, 1962

  Marilyn Monroe is found dead in Los Angeles.

• Oct 1, 1962

  James Meredith registers at the University of Mississippi, escorted by federal marshals.

• Oct 11, 1962

  Pope John XXIII opens the Second Vatican Council.

• Oct 16, 1962

  The Cuban Missile Crisis begins; it ends on October 28.

Price record

A price-guide value is an editorial estimate, not a transaction and not an asking price. Guides lag the market and smooth over grade and condition. It is neither a floor nor a ceiling: a sale can land above or below it, and it should be checked against a realized sale before anything rests on it.

By reference price, US 1962 4c Dag Hammarskjold Invert is number 100 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 (89 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The government printed 40,270,000 copies of its own mistake on purpose.
• Leonard Sherman reportedly paid $2 for the pane he hoped would make him rich.
• Only a cover postmarked before November 16, 1962, can prove a Hammarskjöld invert is an original error.
• Mad magazine parodied the affair with a stamp showing a weeping Sherman in place of Hammarskjöld.
• The Postmaster General behind 'Day's Folly' is the same man who introduced ZIP codes.
• The original stamp went on sale during the Cuban Missile Crisis.