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USPS accidentally issues Vegas Statue of Liberty stamp

David Pescovitz at 9:52 am Fri, Apr 15, 2011

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How fantastically hyperreal: Turns out the United States Postal Service's brand new Statue of Liberty stamp, seen below, accidentally features an illustration of the Lady Liberty replica at Las Vegas's New York-New York casino as opposed to the real statue in New York Harbor. A philatelist and fan of the NYC statue noticed the error and informed Linn's Stamp News. They investigated and published the above comparative photos, with the replica at top left. From the New York Times:
Images 2011 04 15 Us Stamp Stamp-Popup “We still love the stamp design and would have selected this photograph anyway,” said Roy Betts, a spokesman (for the USPS). Mr. Betts did say, however, that the post office regrets the error and is “re-examining our processes to prevent this situation from happening in the future.”

The service selected the image from a photography service, and issued rolls of the stamp bearing the image in December. This month, it issued a sheet of 18 Lady Liberty and flag stamps. Information accompanying the original release of the stamp included a bit of history on the real Statue of Liberty. Las Vegas was never mentioned. The whole mess was exposed by the stamp magazine, which this week ran photographs of both statues.

To the average tourist, there are obvious differences. The Las Vegas statue is half the size of the real Statue of Liberty. And of course, they are in different cities. But it takes a real student of Lady Liberty to notice the contrasts in a stamp-size photo of her head. The hair is different. The replica’s eyes are much more sharply defined. A rectangular patch – a plaque, maybe? – is on the replica’s center spike.

"This Lady Liberty Is a Las Vegas Teenager" (NYT, thanks Bob Pescovitz!)

"Statue of Liberty on U.S. stamp is a replica standing outside Las Vegas hotel and casino" (Linn's Stamp News)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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  • Avram / Moderator

    The most obvious difference: On the replica, those black spots around the crown are just paint. On the original statue, they’re actual windows.

  • Anonymous

    i think this is more appropriate. the old stature of liberty represents the american dream, upward mobility, freedom, all that obsolete constitutional crap. the vegas one represents reckless fiscal policy, decadence, greed, etc. when u think of it that way, which one is more applicable, really.

  • Daemon

    He probably bought a whole bunch more of them before reporting the error

  • Anonymous

    I heard today that one of the biggest stamp mistakes ever was in 2000 when the post office issued a stamp of the Grand Canyon, with a caption that stated “Colorado.”. That one was recalled and destroyed. This one… Is just funny. Luck, be a lady of liberty tonight!

  • Muse

    Wow. This is a great example of how we stop looking closely at familiar objects because we think we already know what they look like. Here is a more direct comparison image of the Vegas Liberty stamp and real Liberty side by side.

    Aside from the differences already mentioned, from a sculpting perspective, the Vegas statue has a squatter, flattened face with less defined bone structure and shallower eyesocket/brow area. The nose shape is blunter and the details of the upper eyelid and brows are sharper, but at a quick glance, I can understand how all that might not be noticed.

  • pgt

    It’s been claimed that the NYC statue’s face was modeled after Bartholdi’s mother. The Vegas version looks 20 years younger.

  • arbitraryaardvark

    All these undocumented aliens look alike to me.
    “Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

  • Brainspore

    Give me your chips,
    your quarters,
    Your huddled masses yearning to eat free (at our 24 hour buffet!)

  • standard

    Lazy keyword searching on Getty Images, is my guess. Reminds me of the McCain ’08 Walter Reed Middle School mix-up. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/john-mccain-acc/

  • jimkirk

    “Not intended to be a factual stamp”?

  • Anonymous

    Well, at least it wasn’t THIS monstrosity they used: Well, at least it wasn’t THIS monstrosity they used: http://www.thejohnandloriestory.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/america-return-to-christ.jpg

    • PathogenAntifreeze

      Yeah, the Statue of Theocracy has some subtle differences even government employees could spot… Further, every time I drive by that abomination, I wonder, “wouldn’t it make more sense to demand, ‘America return to Great Eagle Spirit’ or some such?”

  • jphilby

    Now that you mention it, the old Lady looks a tad Zombie. U-S-P-S, keepin’ up with the times. Teapot Tempest Scandal ensues.

    Story at Linn’s Stamp mag here: http://www.linns.com/Liberty_042511.aspx

  • Anonymous

    Boy, either the air in Vegas is much cleaner than NYC, or the clean the surface of the replica regularly.

  • Anonymous

    There’s a stamp magazine?

  • danrapson

    The replica is on the RIGHT. You have it wrong in the article. The one on the left is the real one the one on the right is the Vegas baby!

    be well; peace…dan

  • pjcamp

    At least they didn’t use this one:

    http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9F5W_Statue_of_Liberty_Columbia_SC

    It’s barely bigger than a first grader.

    • Anonymous

      The Boy Scouts distributed over 200 replicas of the Statue of Liberty to celebrate their fortieth anniversary in 1950 (that’s one of them that you linked to). Here’s a site that tracks the location of many of them, with pictures.

  • franko

    i don’t get the brouhaha. i didn’t think the stamp was supposed to be a photoreal representation anyway. i thought it was, you know, an artist’s take on it.

  • Anonymous

    Damn those boy scouts!

  • Teller

    Art, for the most part, imitates art.

    USA! USA!

  • Creperie

    C’mon, the real difference is that New York has clouds.

  • Anonymous

    Proving once and for all that what happens in Vegas does not, in fact, stay in Vegas.

  • tomrigid

    This is the kind of meta-mistake that makes me bend over and salute my stars-and-stripes boxer shorts.

  • semiotix

    ♪ God shed his grace on theeeee… ♬ *sniff*

  • Anonymous

    Why does this feel like some kind of metaphor?

  • gillyarcht

    somebody at USPS not doing their homework…but kudos to the replica fabricators for fidelity…

  • Anonymous

    They “would have selected this photograph anyway” if they knew it wasn’t the actual statue?

    Horseshit.

    Plus, the stamp photo looks like she’s about to faint from boredom.

  • Anonymous

    Paging Jean Baudrillard, paging Jean Baudrillard. Your hyper-real postage is ready for pickup.

  • RSFSmee

    The Supreme Court ruled shortly after the millennium that lascivious drawings of children could constitute child pornography. Moral: For images of sufficien emotive power, origin is irrelevent. Consequence: Whether original, nouveau, or even entirely CG, if attractive and moving, any image of Lady Liberty is appropriate.

  • forget

    “Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives… and to the ‘good life,’ whatever it is and wherever it happens to be.”
    — Hunter S. Thompson

  • Anonymous

    The biggest difference between the two statues is that the Vegas one is a single mom with two kids and has a really bad boob job.

  • Anonymous

    Well, for me the giveaway was the observation deck windows in her crown. On the Vegas version, they are obviously just painted on.

  • ZippySpincycle

    Oh my God. I’m back. I’m home. All the time, it was… We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

  • stevieg

    Haha, “Google (Images) Search Term: Lady Of Liberty”…..page 2, fourth photo. Good to see the USPS staff are efficient

  • octaviodiaz

    I’ll keep that in mind next time I write an e-mail or pay a bill online.

  • turn_self_off

    sounds like one series of stamps that will be worth a fortune some day…

    • blueelm

      I was thinking the same thing.

  • Anonymous

    The Vegas version looks a bit like Marlene Dietrich to me!