Starbucks coffee has become an icon for the coffee shop and a source of collectibles as well as a fountain of beverages. The franchise is so pervasive that it is not unusual to find a Starbucks store in plain sight of another store! One intersection of a major street in Houston, Texas boasts four Starbucks stores, at least so far, two in a mall, one in a bookstore across the street, and another freestanding in one of the corners!

While the style of the shops and beverages has been widely imitated, few competitors have gone as far as the Starbox coffee store in Teheran, Iran. Even the logo is copied with the "Starbox" name substituted for the real thing. Perhaps they were just jealous because Teheran is not included on the Starbucks city series of coffee mugs.

The Starbucks Las Vegas coffee mug is one that does exist and has since the city series first came out in 1994. Each year, a new series comes out with a different focus, such as city icons, symbols or landmarks. Some collect them all and others focus on a single city, and the Starbucks Las Vegas coffee mug seems to be unusually valued.

Maybe this is because coffee is a great source of pleasure and Vegas seems to be the very image of indulgence and pleasing oneself. Or this could be because so many visitors actually come to Vegas and these mugs are great souvenirs of cities travelers have visited. Some are very hard to find outside of their home cities, and now there are international cities to add to the fun.

City mug collectors can be found all over the world with a quick search engine hunt, and some of the prices are pretty extreme, some $2000 or more. The mugs, when available, sell on the company website for about $40 for a set of four! Mugs only a few years old can sell for that each now. Current online offerings for a single Starbucks Las Vegas coffee mug are at about $40 and the company site is long since sold out.

The current design for the city mugs is representative of an architect's blue prints. Other themes were architectural features, well known physical features and other details that distinguish a city. People in a city buy the mugs out of local pride while visitors grab them to remember a visit, or to take home to a city mug collector.