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Lady Liberty is doomed to be a Vegas showgirl, the Postal Service conceded yesterday.
With more than 2 billion stamps already printed featuring the cheap Sin City statue knockoff instead of the one that greeted millions of immigrants to New York Harbor, it’s probably too late to undo the damage, officials said.
To put this philatelic foul-up in perspective, the average press run of a stamp is just 40 million, according to USPS spokesman Roy Betts.
“This was a very significant press run,” Betts said.
The mix-up, which was caused by a photo agency’s failure to properly identify the image, was spotted by magnifying-glass-eyed stamp nuts.
Somehow the Postal Service insists that the stamps, introduced last December, have “no error in the artwork.”
“The error was in the description, which we’ve changed to indicate was a replica,” Betts said.
An investigation by Linn’s Stamp News exposed the mistake after proving that the eyes, eyelids and eyebrows on the Lady Liberty replica were more sharply defined than those of the original statue.
The real difference between the two statues should be obvious to anyone: People arrive tired and poor at the New York one — and leave that way from the Las Vegas one.
New Yorkers waiting at the Farley Post Office in Midtown yesterday said the agency should destroy the $880 million in stamps.
“It goes along with the watering down of New York City culture,” said 28-year-old waiter Colin Atrophy.
“They should use the picture of the real thing.”
Charlie Bravo, 25, disagrees.
“In fact, the fake one looks better,” he said.
“She’s sexy Sue. The eyebrows, the nose and lips are nice, but the Post Office should be more careful in the future.”
To other postal customers, the face on the stamp is irrelevant.
“It’s still a stamp — the letter will still get to where its going,” said Alicia James, 28, of Brooklyn.
“I wouldn’t have even noticed the difference because the crown is similar.”
And Lady Liberty herself would harbor no resentment. At 124, it’d be nice to be mistaken for a replica built in 1997.
“It’s flattering to her to be thought she’s just 14,” a spokeswoman for the National Parks Service said.