St. Vincent herbivore; Japanese lighthouse.(TO ERR IS DIVINE).

St. Vincent Scott 2667-2674, issued in 1999 at the Australia '99 World Stamp Expo, feature a drove of dinosauric critters reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel, The Lost World. This novel fascinated the public and titillated a few paleontologists into believing that some giant reptiles had survived the species' demise 65 million years ago.

Scott 2671g depicts Psittacosaurus (Parrot Lizard) a bipedal herbivore that, despite its large image on the stamp, is factually known, after multiple discoveries of more than 400 individual fossils, to have grown to about 26 inches in height. The stamp errs with a misspelled genus--Peittacosaurus.

Scott 2672e pictures Stegosaurus (Roof Lizard), a quadruped armored dinosaur with distinctive tail spikes and plates that announced to nearby critters to beware of a hungry Stegosaurus predator seeking a fight and a quick meat-based meal. Fortunately for the bus-sized Stegosaurus, the ruse worked, and he was left alone to secretly satisfy his herbivorous appetite for plant life. This stamp also errs with a misspelled genus--Stegasaurus.

Scott 2672g, highlighting a herbivore, the bipedal Iguanodon (Iguana Tooth), with its large thumb spikes, completes a less than commendable hat trick of designer misspellings, with Iguanadon.

Thanks to Dennis Carman of Louisville, Kentucky.

Grenada Scott 3169-3179, issued in 2001, honor 26 famous lighthouses around the world, including Japan's Inubo-Saki Lighthouse on Scott 3174b.

In 1998, with almost 15,000 lighthouses in the world, the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) compiled a full-color, 9 1/4 X 11 3/4 softcover book, Lighthouses of the World, featuring images and descriptive text for 125 historic lighthouses in 40 different countries. Published initially in French, an English version quickly appeared later in 1998, and in 2004, a Japanese edition was released.

During the six-year interim between the English and Japanese renderings, 36 Lighthouse stamps and eight souvenir sheets titled Republique du Benin (unauthorized by Benin and unrecognized by Scott) were sold to collectors. These stamps and souvenir sheets reproduced photographs from the English-language book.

Grenada's 2001 Lighthouse set, legally issued and listed in Volume 3 of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, used at least one image from the English opus that actually appeared in error on the page featuring the Inubo-Saki lighthouse. The erroneous lighthouse is actually another Japanese structure--the Izumo-Hinomisaki lighthouse. The publisher of the Japanese edition of the IALA book caught the error before publication.

Grenada, in using the picture from the English version, erred by showing the Izumo-Hinomisaki lighthouse captioned Inubo-Saki lighthouse on Scott 3174b.

Thanks to Susumu Shibuya of Choshi, Chibaken, Japan.

Senegal issued Scott C124-C125 in 1973 to honor French journalist and philosopher Raoul Folloreau (1903-77), who established a foundation to assist victims of leprosy. The stamps also commemorate the centenary of leprosy's discovery by Norwegian physician Amauer Gerhard Hansen (1841-1912).

In 1878, Hansen isolated and identified the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae as the cause of the affliction. Also known as Hansen's disease, its human acquisition is uncertain. Transmission generally occurs upon exposure to infectious nasal secretions, and intimate and prolonged contact with infected persons.

M. leprae differs from other mycobacteria in that it requires living cells (an intracellular environment) to carry out its activities, and cannot be grown on or in conventional laboratory media.

Scott C125 correctly shows Hansen, but the representation of the microorganisms growing as accumulations on the surfaces of what is intended to be red and white laboratory media in different size dishes on the left side of the stamp is incorrect. It is reasonable for the designer of the stamp to think that all bacteria are alike and can be grown on conventional laboratory media, but this is not possible with leprosy.

Thanks to George Wistreich of Los Angeles, California.

Readers are invited to submit their own candidates for To Err is Divine. Each item, or combination of errors from the same souvenir sheet, selected for publication earns $25. No need to send the stamps, but we do ask that you include photocopies, Scott number and/or year issued, if known.

Source Citation
Lodge, David. "St. Vincent herbivore; Japanese lighthouse." Scott Stamp Monthly June 2010: 78. General OneFile. Web. 26 May 2010.
Document URL
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A224335113&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=18551_mcpls&version=1.0

Gale Document Number:A224335113