So I just spent the last two days in Las Vegas visiting my family and figured I'd share some of the neat little numismatic related souvenirs that I came across. Saturday morning we went to a place Called Red Rock Canyon. I asked my tour guide(Mom) What made the rocks red, she didn't know,but they are really cool to look at. There is a scenic drive that goes through the park and you can hike or climb the rocks. There are petroglyphs and wild burros and horses. Although we did or saw none of the above. It was about 40 degrees with the wind blowin pretty good. Ah but when we got to the visitor center I spied this cool little machine You put a dollar in and watch it mint a nice copper token. There was a machine next to it that had pre-made silver-ish tokens as well. But when mom saw me putting all my cash in these two machines to get some Las Vegas souvenirs she mentioned in passing that she heard about this machine at the Golden Nugget where you could actually put money in and get gold in return... Needless to say being a coin collector I knew exactly what she was referring to and was not going to rest until I saw this fabled machine with my own two eyes... Unfortunately JK, we had tickets to some show called Mystere that although it was pretty awesome in its own right, I could not truly enjoy it with the knowledge that I was going to actually be able to put money in a vending machine and recieve gold in return. We got to the Golden Nugget and while searching for the Gold ATM I came across an elongated cent machine that I had to dump some change in. All this was pretty cool until I finally found the machine I was looking for. Hidden in a corner of the lobby right next to the largest gold nugget I have ever seen was this little beauty.
The machine dispensed gold in 1 gram 2.5 gram 5 gram 1/2 ounce and 1 oz gold eagles It was 1500+ for the 1 oz eagle, and I didn't have that much on me, due to all the tokens and would probably not pay that much for 1 oz of gold just to say I bought it at an ATM, but I did have to buy a 2.5 gram bar. The bar was $134 and I figured it was worth the premium on the small bar for the fun factor of it. Anyone that visits Vegas should make this one of their stops.
Then on the way home while driving through Baker California,(home of the worlds largest thermometer) I stopped in to a place called Alien Fresh Beef jerky(Figured I wasn't missing enough teeth.) And low and behold another elongated cent machine... Hopefully if any of you make it to LasVegas these stops will help you find gifts or fun for those collectors in your families. Jay
I just got back from England and France and all the touristy spots sell these European Tokens. They also had the Elongated Penny machines. Needless to say, given all the foreign currency and coins, I couldn't get enough even going so far as to get bags of Penny's and Two Pence coins from the local bank!
Really cools stuff. 19Lyds .I totally left out the box of halves I had mom pickup for me to search while there. 4 40% 1 1964 and one 1999 Kennedy that looks like it has a tiny clip maybe 5%.
cool stuff.. I was just in Vegas but didnt get to the Nugget.. def have to make it a stop next time. As an FYI.. the rocks are red because the contain iron that has rusted.
Thanks...That was my question to her...were they clay or was it rust ....she didn't know so I just accepted that and took pictures...:goofer:
There used to be a nice numismatic museum inside Mandalay Bay, but it's been gone a while now. Used to stop in there anytime they added new exhibits. The new Sahara Coins shop has a million dollars embedded in their floor, so thats kinda neat if you ever make it in there. Guy
I will have to check that out....Oh and we drove by Gold and Silver Pawn of Pawn stars fame. It was about 10pm and they were closed with only the walkup window for pawns, but still had a line of people hanging around out front.....
