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ALL WIGHT? Allan Grant with his sheet of stamps including the mis-spelled Isle of White'.

THE NEEDLES are one of the most famous sights from our southern shores.

Tourists flock to see their unusual shapes emerging from the sea - and now they have been singled out as a national treasure in a new set of stamps.

Surely everybody knows how to spell their famous home?

Not the blundering Royal Mail. The company has managed to spell the Isle of Wight wrongly - thousands of times over - on a new set of stamps featuring The Needles. They have fallen for the classic mistake, spelling it "White".

New Forest stamp dealers Rushstamp have received 100 copies of the collectors' stamp ready to sell from Monday. Yesterday, they also received a recall letter from Royal Mail.

Allan Grant, who established Rushstamp in Emery Down in 1958, told the Daily Echo: "It's a massive mistake. How could it have slipped through the net of designers, printers and everyone else? Everybody knows how the Isle of Wight is spelt.

"This is a one off. I have never heard of it before, but I can imagine heads will roll over this one. They really have only noticed at the last minute as the stamps are due to go on sale at 9am on Monday and they must have been printed months ago."

The stamp is part of a set called Glorious England that features other iconic images of the country, including the London Eye, the Angel of the North and Stonehenge.

They are a collectors' set to mark St George's Day and have already been distributed - and recalled - to dealers.

Mr Grant added: "It's farcical. The Isle of Wight has been there for hundreds of years - this is like spelling the name of a country wrongly."

Proud Islanders have called it an "unfortunate mistake" but they have welcomed the attention it is bringing.

Sue Emmerson, from Isle of Wight Tourism, said: "We do occasionally get people spelling Wight as the colour, but pretty rarely if I am truthful. Most people get the spelling correct.

"As long as people come and visit, that's all that counts - we don't mind if it is spelt wrong occasionally."

Isle of Wight Council leader Andy Sutton said: "It is an unfortunate mistake but these things do happen. We are, however, delighted that the Isle of Wight has been recognised as a great place to visit and hope it will encourage many more people to visit our beautiful island."

Richard Hall, from Royal Mail, said: "These are sheets of stamps purely for collectors. They are not designed for people to put on mail. The mistake was missed during our normal checking procedures - it's a case of human error.

"We are having a reprint done so they will still have the stamps in advance of the issue next week."

10:56am Friday 20th April 2007

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