The Historic American Stamp That's Worth A Fortune Now

Generally speaking, America is a relatively young country. Regardless, in the roughly 250 years since it was officially established, it has created quite a few historically significant — and valuable — objects. For example, The Brasher Doubloon, America's first gold coin, is worth a fortune now at close to $10 million dollars. However, while you might expect this from a piece of precious metal that holds such historical value, there are other remnants of the country's rich history (no pun intended) which also hold surprisingly large price tags. While you might expect these particularly valuable old items to be jewelry or even furniture, one of the most notable items in U.S. history is actually a stamp: The Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill.

The Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill was valued of $3 million dollars in 2005. However, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI inflation calculator, in today's dollars this would calculate to north of $5 million. This being the case, it might be worth exploring the unexpected value of your old stamps in order to see if you're in possession of any particularly valuable pieces of history.

After the Civil War, the U.S. government was in a precarious financial position. To make matters worse, the government feared additional loss revenues. According to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, one of these lost revenues, in particular, was due to the cleaning and re-use of already used postage stamps. In an effort to combat this practice, in 1867 and 1868 they began creating postage stamps that were seemingly impossible to replicate. These stamps are now known as the "Grill Issues" due to the waffle-like texture of the stamp itself. While there were multiple issues of these stamps created — including the A.Grill, B. Grill, C. Grill, D. Grill, E. Grill, and F. Grill — the rarest of all of them is the 1-cent Z-Grill featuring Benjamin Franklin.

This stamp was first pressed in 1868, and, in addition to being old, this stamp's grandiose value stems from the fact that there are currently only two known examples of it in existence today. One is in a private collection, and the other is on display at the National Postal Museum.

While the Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill holds particular value due to its rarity, there are still a handful of other historically significant stamps out there worth mentioning. For starters, another member of the Grill Issue stamps, known as the 3-cent George Washington B-Grill, sold for $1 million in 2008. Also, a 5-cent Thomas Jefferson A-Grill sold for $340,000 in 2019.

Another notable stamp, the Alexandria "Blue Boy" was first pressed in 1847. However, there is only one of these stamps currently known in existence, and it sold for $1.18 million at auction in 2019. Also, perhaps one of the most well-known stamps in the country (at least amongst avid stamp collectors) is the "Inverted Jenny" stamp. Just 100 of these stamps were every printed in 1918, and they possess an upside-down picture of a flying plane — the result of a printing error. One sold for $2 million in 2023.