[ot] Rare Stamp in Ballot Box?

I saw this on CNN.com, and thought it amazing - why would someone mail
an absentee ballot using a 1918 postage stamp?

jmcquown...

How strange! I used to collect stamps; still have my fathers stamp book in
a box around here someplace. He was born in 1924 so there is no telling
what's in that book.

And what does it say about the US Postal Service that it was
delivered?!

jmcquown...

It says 24 cents is worth as much as 39 cents. (laughing)

Of course, they don't know for *certain* that it's the famous
"inverted Jenny" stamp (worth an estimated $200,000 USD uncancelled)
on that ballot envelope. And they have to wait 22 months to legally
find out, because they can't open the sealed ballot box until then.

Ah Florida - why does it seem that election weirdness always falls on
you?

jmcquown...

Dangling chads... not again with the chads! LOL

Jo Firey...

I'd strongly recommend that you take your stamps and have them appraised.

The stamps on the ballot, including several WWII era stamps and aparently an
inverted Jenny were worth at least several hundred thousand if real. And
there really is no reason to believe they aren't.

jmcquown...

If only I knew which box the stamps were in. The album is around here
someplace, I'm just not sure which box it's in.

Jo Firey...

Probably just what the old guy who had the stamps was thinking fifteen or
twenty years ago. And now his caregiver had no clue when he asked her to
mail his absentee ballot.

Serves people right for not taking better care of their elder family
members.

John F. Eldredge...

She is implying that the stamp collector in question was elderly, and
that a care-giver used the uncanceled stamps for their face value, not
realizing that they were worth far more as rarities. This seems quite
plausible.

I really didn't like the government attitude that "well in any case they
belong to us now"

Who knows what degrees of senitily or ignorance could lead to such a
mistake.

Joy...

The problem is, there is no way to determine who they do (or did) belong to.
There was no identifying information on the envelope, so anybody could claim
it was theirs. If they said they'd give it back to whoever sent it, they'd
probably have dozens of people claiming it.

Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha

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