The Hammarskjold Inverts:
A Specialized Study
by Dennis Chamberlain
[The computer-enhanced color images for this article are
on pages 36 and 37. JFD.]
1. The Hammarskjold Invert Error
Double Matched Sets
Shown at the top of page 36 is a set of eight different
Hammarskjold Plate Number Blocks (Mint Never Hinged).
All eight plate blocks were printed from exactly the same
plates (27279 and 27282) and have exactly the same plate
numbers. They are displayed to show the unique features of
the Hammarskjold Invert.
The Invert Error Double Matched Set is unique to the
Dag Hammarskjold commemorative and illustrates that the
“Dag” is not two separate varieties, but one single variety
printed two different ways. This scarce set of matched plate
blocks was created as a direct result of the inverted yellow
printing error and subsequent “special printing” of 1962,
when two Hammarskjold commemorative sheets (400 stamps)
were printed in error with inverted yellow color.
Several error panes showed up in the hands of collec-
tors. One lucky collector who discovered he had a complete
pane of 50 error stamps estimated its value at $500,000, (a
lot of money in 1962!) When government officials became
aware of the error, Postmaster General J. Edward Day or-
dered that more of the errors be deliberately produced to
completely destroy their value. They made a special printing
of 40,270,000 stamps.
Since that time, the philatelic community has pretty
much treated Scott 1204, the reprint, as just another com-
memorative variety—but it’s not! It is a genuine Invert Error,
the rarest type of error!
Why continue to emphasize the way Sc. 1204 is similar
to other stamps? Here are some ways it is different:
First of all, there are four different Hammarskjold singles
including the normal 1203 stamp. There are three face differ-
ent single stamp varieties with the inverted yellow color, 80%
of the inverts printed were variety 1, 10% variety 2 and 10%
variety 3 (bottom of page 36). Today, while varieties 1 and 2
are common, variety 3 may be quite scarce.
What is the most interesting feature of the Hammarsk-
jold invert? Unlike the Pan-Am inverts of 1901 and Inverted
Jenny of 1918, the 1962 invert does not show an inverted
plane, train or automobile. This makes its single stamps much
less impressive as an invert error.
The most dramatic feature of the Hammarskjold invert
is found only on the plate blocks. On every plate block there
is an upside-down yellow number (top of page 36)!
Anyone who is collecting the Hammarskjold as an invert
error really needs to display a plate number block in their
collection. But, which type should you save? There are two
very different types of invert plate blocks: I call the plate
blocks in the left panes Se-tenant Plate Blocks because they
have face different, attached stamps, invert variety 2 on the
left and invert variety 1 on the right.
These se-tenant plate blocks may be the first U.S. se-
June 2010 U.S. Stamp News
tenant variety, as they were printed two years before the 1964
Christmas stamps! They have white margins, and their yellow
plate numbers are perfectly centered between the perfora-
tions. I call the plate blocks in the right panes Yellow Margin
Plate Blocks because the yellow printing extends 8 mm into
the margin. In the yellow printed margins you can clearly
see the ghost-like upside-down “4C” denomination. [Visible
in our computer enhanced image, upper right on page 36,
arrow. JFD.]
Unlike the Se-tenant Plate Blocks, the four stamps of
the Yellow Margin Plate Blocks are all the same, invert variety
1. In these plate blocks the yellow plate number is dissected
by the perforations.
In November 1962, when millions of the error stamps
were being printed, the Postmaster General’s public relations
man was asked by a reporter how much he would pay for the
misprints. Victory was declared in his answer, “four cents, no
more.” Ironically, this printing was making philatelic history,
for the same plates that were used for the correct printing
were also being used in the deliberate error printing produc-
ing DOUBLE MATCHED SETS unique to the Hammarskjold
commemorative. Eight different plate combinations were used
and produced eight different double matched sets.
The special printing produced a total of 201,350 of the
invert matched sets, or an average of about 25,000 per plate
combination. Obviously, only a small fraction of these sets
could be assembled from the plate blocks that exist today.
Today, the quantity of each of the eight sets is limited to its
scarcest surviving plate block. In perspective, 150,000 of the
recalled Legends of the West panes were released to collec-
tors in 1994.
2. Four Hammarskjold Varieties and
Yellow Printing Cross Gutter Block
Shown at the bottom of page 36 are the four Hammar-
skjold varieties. Across the top of page 37 is a yellow printing
cross gutter block from Scott 1204, which is compared to a
normal block of four of Scott 1203. That display contains two
stamps that I call variety-3. (My description below tells why
variety-3 is scarce and how it is different from any other U.S.
stamp ever printed—a unique feature that has never been
reported in the philatelic press.
There are four Hammarskjold single varieties, the nor-
mal Scott 1203, and three different invert varieties of Scott
1204. The three invert varieties have never been officially
recognized by the philatelic community, nevertheless they are
real. The scarcest of the three, the one I call invert variety-3
holds quite an amazing and unique distinction. No other U.S.
stamp ever printed shares its claim.
This little stamp is part of three different panes! The
Hammarskjold variety was printed in sheets of 200 stamps
that were cut into four 50 stamp panes. The position of the
pane can be identified by the location of the plate numbers as
upper-left (UL), lower left (LL), upper-right (UR) or lower-right
(LR). When the yellow printing was inverted, the yellow pane
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