What Happens in Vegas (Sorta): USPS Uses Wrong Statue of Liberty on Stamp


The New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas holds a special place in history, and in my heart. I was involved in the genesis of the resort.

I attended many of the start-up conferences regarding its construction. I was almost pushed bodily (and vehicularly) into the pit being dug for the basement levels, when foolishly driving across the work site in the path of an earth mover. I was involved with the construction of the Manhattan Express roller coaster, and the hiring and training of its first crew. I was in charge of operations the night that David Hasselhoff took the "first ride".


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Las Vegas' Faux NYNY

This was in the waning days of my involvement with the amusement industry. But immediately after that career death, I began working in the signage industry in Las Vegas, and played a role designing much of the signage for the interior of the property. The company I work for even had a hand in the creation of the Statue of Liberty out front. It was around Lady Liberty's harbor that offerings of t-shirts and other mementos were left to mourn the losses of September 11, 2011. And by a stroke of outrageous luck, the New York-New York property--while containing scale replicas of many New York City skyscrapers--never included a copy of the World Trade Center towers. Which is all a long wind-up to toot my own horn as a tie-in to a story that involves Las Vegas' faux Statue of Liberty. . .

[Excerpt]

Image from source, Sun-Sentinel

Oops! Statue of Liberty stamp shows Las Vegas lady

After printing 3 billion copies of a new postage stamp bearing an image of the Statue of Liberty, the United States Postal Service received a strange question from a stamp collector.

Did postal officials realize the photograph was not of the famed statue in New York Harbor, but of a less-feted fiberglass and Styrofoam replica outside a Las Vegas casino? . . .

Read more at: Sun-Sentinel