A stamp that was supposed to show the Statue of Liberty actually features a replica outside a Las Vegas casino, The New York Times reported Friday.
The United States Postal Service admitted the mistake but said it planned to stick with its Lady Liberty "Forever" stamp.
"We still love the stamp design and would have selected this photograph anyway," Roy Betts, a post office spokesman, told the Times.
However, he added the Post Office regretted the error and was "re-examining our processes to prevent this situation from happening in the future."
The Times said the image was taken from a photography service, but a "super-fan" of the statue spotted subtle differences and contacted Linn's Stamp News, which first ran the story.
The differences include the hair, more sharply defined eyes and a small patch.
Some people were delighted.
"Everyone thought the post office was honoring just one great American institution when in reality they were honoring two — the Statue of Liberty and Las Vegas," said Gordon Absher, spokesman for MGM Resorts International, which owns the New York-New York casino in Vegas. The fake statue stands in a fake New York Harbor.
Others were less than pleased.
"It simply means the post office is doing a stupid thing," Edward Koch, former mayor of the real New York, told the Times.