The USPS and members of the Citizens Stamp advisory Committee commissioned Steven Noble to create an illustration for the 95th anniversday souvenir sheet for the "Inverted Jenny" stamp illustrating six examples of the inverted stamp denominated $2 instead of the original 24 cents. The stamp-pane design — envisioned by art director Antonio Alcalá — also stays faithful to the look of the original. Alcalá worked with Steven Noble, an illustrator with a knack for line art, to render the selvage, and a pale yellow background makes the stamps look aged. An inverted banner pokes gentle fun at the upside-down nature of the misprint.
To produce the stamps, the Postal Service and its printing vendor decided to sacrifice speed for the sake of authenticity and detail: They rendered three of the stamp’s four colors via the centuries-old method of intaglio printing.
True, this method — which relies on an engraved plate to make impressions — has become highly mechanized in the years since the original Jenny stamps. Still, the process demanded an uncommon level of focus and agility from the Sennett team.
