BUFFALO, N.Y. — A collector credits a hunch with helping him land one of just 100 sheets of stamps recently issued by the United States Postal Service featuring a corrected version of its rare and famous error, the 1918 ‘‘inverted Jenny.’’
Art Van Riper bought the stamps in Waverly, N.Y., after reading that the Postal Service had printed a new batch of inverted Jenny stamps celebrating the 95-year-old edition that, by mistake, depicted an upside-down biplane.
He also read that, as a way to draw more people into stamp collecting, the Postal Service randomly distributed 100 sheets featuring the plane right-side up among the 2.2 million sheets replicating the original and distributed nationwide.
‘‘I needed some stamps and thought ‘what the heck,’ ’’ Van Riper said by phone earlier this month from his Sayre, Pa., home, on the New York border. ‘‘I just had a feeling that maybe there would be one in Waverly.’’
He intended to purchase five sheets of the $2 stamps, at $12 a sheet, and use them to mail Christmas presents and for stocking stuffers.