I've always enjoyed taking trips to Las Vegas. I believe the first time I went was shortly after I had turned twenty-one years old. I had been working in South America for a couple years at that point and took a trip home to spend my birthday with family and friends. I went with my buddies for a long weekend to enjoy sin city.
The city was a much different place at the time as it was the early 1990's. Many of the hotels and casinos you see now hadn't even been a dream at that time. One notable structure absent at the time was the Stratosphere tower. Now it's an iconic landmark when you first arrive in the city.
Today I decided it would be fun to share another of my Silver Strike tokens from none other than the Stratosphere. These were commemorative tokens that could be won by playing the Silver Strike slot machines that could be found in most casinos around the world at one point. They were made of bronze or silver, the silver ones are what I have collected for years. I particularly like tokens from casinos that are defunct, and part of Las Vegas history. This one fits the build nicely, take a look:
About the token:
From silverstrikers.com
Not the best pictures I've ever taken, the silver has such nice reflective surfaces that I struggled with the photos. These tokens contain about 0.6 Troy ounces of pure silver surrounded by a brass ring. The silver is what got me started collecting them in the first place, but they can become a bit addictive to collect. The Stratosphere as a brand name is no more, as new ownership re-branded it several years back. It's a nice piece of Las Vegas history, just the type of tokens I like to stack!
The Stratosphere
triptipslasvegas.com
What a view!
Opened in 1996 as the Stratosphere complex in Las Vegas, this property began to have financial problems almost right from the start. It cost $550 million to get into operation, and they had wanted to build the tallest freestanding tower in the world. That idea was denied by the US Federal Aviation Administration, so they were capped at 1,149 feet (350m). Plus they built the whole thing away from the main Las Vegas strip attractions in kind of a bad part of town. By the next year they had already filed for bankruptcy protection.
After a couple ownership changes it was finally profitable, but after some of the latest renovations, the new owners changed the name to "The Strat" in 2020. The Stratosphere was no more and faded in the annals of Las Vegas history.
Tokyo Tower
travel.gaijinpot.com
Remind you of anything? Completed in 1958 as a radio tower it was designed to look similar to the famous Eifel Tower found in Paris. Not only that, it is nine meters taller than the one found it Paris. The Tokyo Tower stands 1,092 feet (332.9 meters) high and at the time of it's completion it was the tallest tower in the world. However, it was still shorter than the Empire State Building in New York City which was the tallest building in the world at the time.
Part of the motivation for the tower's construction was to show the world that Japan had recovered from World War 2. They proved that even further throughout the 1970's and 1980's by producing some of the best electronics and reliable cars in the world.
Kennecott Garfield Smelter Stack
evanrowellphotography.com
This is an interesting fact that I only learned of yesterday. Kennecott is a mining company belonging to Rio Tinto Corp out of Australia. It is the largest open pit mine in the world and located in the state of Utah not far from Salt Lake City. The mine produces one percent of the world's copper every year.
The reason I include it is that it has it's own smelter to extract copper from the mined rock ore. The smokestack on top of that facility is 1,215 feet (370 m) in height making it the tallest manmade tower west of the Mississippi River (the entire western part of the US.) It had to be that height to comply with emissions regulations, and by it's height alone puts both the Stratosphere and the Tokyo Tower to shame!
That is one tall smokestack tower! While it isn't silver, silver is one of the metals they also extract from the ore along with gold. Below you can see a picture of the mine itself, it's huge as as well!
axiomimages.com
That will wrap up my post for this Monday, and I hope the day has been treating you all well. Thanks for taking the time to read over my post, and I hoped you liked the cool token and some impressive towers from the US and Japan. Please feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. As always thank you for all of your support, it's greatly appreciated. Have a great week everyone!
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_Garfield_Smelter_Stack
Disclaimer:
All pictures are mine unless otherwise indicated
I am not a financial planner and this isn't financial advice. Please always do your own research before investing your money. You worked hard enough to earn it!
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