Stamp of error

Stamp>> Statue of liberty • USA

 
Published: Tuesday 31 May 2011

It took the keen eye of a stamp collector to spot the mistake.

imageA United States Postal Service stamp bearing a picture of New York’s iconic Statue of Liberty was in fact a photo of a replica statue at a Las Vegas casino. The stamp, which shows a low-angled close-up of Lady Liberty’s face and crown, was issued in December.

The image was described as the 93-metre tall statue, a gift from the people of France and “a symbol of political freedom and dem-ocracy for millions of people around the world”. This is not quite true of the replica outside the New York-New York Hotel and Casino.

imageThe US postal service became aware of the “mischaracterisation” after a call from an anonymous stamp collector, said its spokesperson Roy Betts. MGM Resorts Inter-national, which owns New York-New York Hotel, seemed pleased with the mix-up.

“We thought that the Post Office was honouring just one great American institution, but in reality it was honouring two, The Statue of Liberty and Las Vegas, with just one stamp,” said Yvette Monet, a company spokesperson.

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