I've lived in Las Vegas for somewhere around 20 years now. It's changed quite a bit since I first moved here. And in the time I've lived here, I've collected a few things. Nothing major, just a token now and then. And looking back through all the old crap I have piled around, I found a few things! So let's see what I've been hoarding, shall we?
Oh, a few coins! The one on the top far right is a Canadian dollar coin commonly called a "Loony." Called that because of the loon bird on the coin. I bought it from a Canadian who was bitching about the exchange rate years ago. I have one or two more somewhere. The other three coins are Italian. Two are Italian money, and the third is a token from an Italian arcade in Brindisi. Don't know where that is? Too bad. I'm sure the arcade is long gone by now. And the big one was a Las Vegas fad for a while. The casinos, and even the airport (That's the one above!) put in these quarter slot machines that if you hit a certain combination, would give you a neat, minted coin in a plastic case. It was supposed to be worth $10 at the time I won it. I wonder if it's worth more now?
Now we move on to some of my favorite buttons!
Oh, so cool! I always liked big, pin on buttons like these! The Stardust Hotel and Casino is long gone. It's been destroyed, so that's a really cool button! And also note the two buttons on top: "hairspray" and "Burn the Floor." I never did see either one, but they were both shows at Luxor at one time. I wonder if we got rid of the burn the floor one after one performance? I mean how many times can you burn the floor? Hairspray was just kind of...removed. I don't know whether someone didn't like the show, or what, but out it went! Still, they had a neat button! And last, but not least, the "Mickey Mouse 75th birthday" button. My sister and I happened to be at Disneyland for a trip that year, and hadn't even realized it was Mickey Mouse's birthday! We were given the pins on our way into the park. Needless to say, the park became too crowded and Mickey was mobbed, so we didn't actually get to say happy birthday to him. Still, a neat button.
And last of the collectables: My casino chips. Did you know that sometimes older chips become valuable after they've been out of circulation for a while? If you have some cool ones, and they're in pretty good shape, you can get some major money for them! I have a few cool ones that are in pretty good shape! I'm not really interested in selling them, though. Why sell a trophy, right?
The top two chips are $5 chips from Luxor back when the Blue Man Group used to perform there. Yes, they had Blue Man and let them go! Actually, the story was that the show's contract ran out when Mandalay corporation was selling Luxor to the MGM/Mirage corporation, and the contract just didn't get renewed. I'm not sure of what really happened, but they left. And so now, there are no more of these casino chips! Well, obviously there are at least two that I have. *chuckle* MINE, MINE! The chip that says "Planet Hollywood" at Caesar's Palace and was made to commemorate the grand opening of the Planet Hollywood restaurant in the Forum Shops there. Back then no one knew there would eventually be a Planet Hollywood casino on the Strip! And my two favorite chips? Oh yes, the original Luxor chips. These are from way back around 1993 when Luxor first opened. I wonder if anyone I work with now even remembers these?
Well, that's a bit of my collection. Things I found when I blew the dust off my desk and dug through a huge pile.
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