The Post Office Department issued its first major postage error sometime shortly after the March release of the 1869 Pictorial issue. The error stamps—15c, 24c and 30c 1869 Inverts—were created by the inadvertent turning of the sheets to the wrong direction before the second stage of the bicolor flat plate printing process. This misprinting had a remarkable effect: the framed portion of the 15c and 24c designs was upside-down relative to the central vignette; and, in the design of the 30c, the draped flags surrounding the Eagle and Shield emblem were hanging up instead of down.
Other printing and manufacturing errors had been issued prior to 1869—missing perforations, sheets printed on both sides, and other philatelic varieties—but these could hardly have drawn serious concern from postal officials. On the other hand, the Inverts must have been an embarrassment to postal officials, who already faced public ridicule over the irregular 1869 designs, alleged gum problems and criticism of the contract terms from Butler, Carpenter. The high-value 1869’s were a first attempt at bicolor postage stamp production; more than 30 years would pass before another bicolored issue. Ironically, the second effort—the 1901 Pan-American issue—was marred by the same problem.
The 1869 Inverts are not the world’s first invert errors. That title goes to the famous Western Australia "Inverted Swan" which was printed in 1854 from a misentered cliche in the lithographic stone. At about the same time (but not discovered until 1874), the India 4-annas "Inverted Head" appeared. This latter error, like the 1869 Inverts, was a printing mistake during a two-stage press run.
News of the 1869 15c and 24c Inverts reached the philatelic press within eighteen months of release. The American Journal of Philately, December 1870, reported the 15c and 24c Inverts (not the 30c, which was discovered later). Included in this report was the statement that a "few" of the stamps in "each sheet" had inverted vignettes, meaning that the errors were the result of a plate production flaw, not a printing error. While certain evidence suggests a very slight possibility that the first 15c and 24c printing plates contained inverted transfers (see Hahn, "The 15c Type I Printing", Chronicle, Feb. 1983), our opinion is that all surviving 1869 Invert stamps were the result of a printing error, not any type of plate flaw. This opinion is supported by the Lichtenstein story of the 15c "quarter sheet" purchased at a New York City post office, and by the existence of the 24c block and two pairs.
There is no record of how many 1869 Inverts reached the public, but our most up-to-date census of surviving copies has a total of 223 stamps, including:
30c Invert (Scott 121b)
Unused: 7
Used: 37
No multiples or covers recorded24c Invert (Scott 120b)
Unused: 4
Used: 84
Includes used block of four, two used pairs and single on cover24c Invert, Imperforate, Without Grill
(Scott 120b variety)
Unused: 115c Type II Invert (Scott 119b)
Unused: 3
Used: 84
No multiples or proven covers recorded15c Type II, Double Vignette Impression, One Inverted (Scott 119c)
Used: 3
The 1869 Inverts in the Zoellner collection include one of two recorded 15c stamps with the Large 5-Point Star fancy cancel, one of two recorded pairs of the 24c Invert, and a superb 30c with Leaf cancel.