oops

U.S. Post Office Accidentally Issues Stamp Based on Vegas Statue of Liberty Replica

The U.S. Postal Service has issued a new Statue of Liberty stamp, celebrating the 125th anniversary of the landmark. Sounds nice, except, according to the New York Times, the stamp’s Lady Liberty is “accidentally based on the replica at the New York-New York casino in Las Vegas,” and not “the one off the tip of Lower Manhattan that for 125 years has welcomed millions of New York’s huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Well, when you put it that way, what’s the difference?

To the naked eye, the statue on the stamp might look like the original, but it isn’t. “The hair is different,” the Times reports. “The replica’s eyes are much more sharply defined. A rectangular patch is on the replica’s center spike.” (She also looks kind of drunk in Vegas.) The whole mess was exposed by a stamp magazine, which scored a major scoop after being tipped off by the world’s only fervent stamp collector-slash-“Statue of Liberty superfan.”

The post office has acknowledged the error, saying it regrets the mistake and it’ll be “re-examining processes to prevent this situation from happening in the future,” as well as changing the stamp’s informational material. That said, they’re keeping the stamp as it is. A rep explained: “We still love the stamp design and would have selected this photograph anyway.” So lay off.

This Lady Liberty Is a Las Vegas Teenager [NYT]

U.S. Post Office Accidentally Issues Stamp Based on Vegas Statue of Liberty Replica