| Starbucks City Mugs | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
A second series of mugs produced in the U.S. and Canada made up what is often called the "1999 series". These have photo montages of the city, a smaller rectangular area for the city name, and quirky symbols on the handle. I collected these only for a while (and, as a rule, only by going to that city to get it), but am now trading in the few I have for other 1994-style mugs. This was, after all, the original intention behind my collection: to have some extra motivation to travel to faraway and exotic places (you know, like Boise, Idaho).
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An additional series, usually referred to as the "artsy design series" (Starbucks collectors are really original, as you can see) is a hybrid of the two, found only for select international locations in Asia. Most of the mugs are smaller (about 13 oz.), have the city name on the handle, and are more decorative, including maps of the region and/or artwork. In general, however, there is no commonality to these mugs, other than the fact that they are just...well...full of art.
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Japan
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China & Taiwan
Korea
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Thailand
Philippines
Indonesia
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But wait, that's not all. Just as I've started to make some room for these mugs, Starbucks started yet another series in the US and Canada — their third — known as the "skyline" series. Unlike the other series, these come in two sizes: 24 ounces and (for some) two gallons, and were, at one point, available for purchase from the Starbucks web site. That's cheating, though. The two gallon mugs, which few people were willing to pay the $120 for, are long gone, but the series is still found trickling through stores. For those who are really nitpicky about their mugs, the first release of mugs (only in some cities) had a large logo on the bottom, while those released in the second batch have a small logo. A couple of mugs were released in both series, but are otherwise identical.
Seven mugs were also available as miniature Christmas ornaments (marked as [mm]).
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This new series replaces the quickly turned-over Skyline series, and is intended to honor Starbucks Top 25 Markets in the US. The list below comes from the Starbucks Collectibles site; availability in some cities can not yet be verified. This series also, briefly, had an evil twin "Art Deco" series, which was only found in a couple of cities, noted below as "[ad]". (* The first, Seattle, was recalled when the misspelled "Mount Ranier" [sic] was discovered on it.) Mini-mugs [mm] and magnets for several cities also accompany this series.
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These mugs have just been released, and have no official name that we can tell. Since they presently only cover London scenes, I'm going with that until something else comes along. The mugs have the name of the region in the upper left-hand corner of the image (e.g.: LONDON or IRELAND), "STARBUCKS" on the handle, and "STARBUCKS COFFEE" along the bottom of the image.
Similar to the standard '94-style and international mugs, but with more color, different fonts, and smaller cities. All mugs feature a collage with the city's skyline as the prominent background.
In addition to the skyline-style Christmas ornaments (above), a mini city mug set from Indonesia features 2.5-ounce versions of all five Indonesian mugs: Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, Medan, and Bandung. General availability is not known at this time, nor is it known whether these sets will be issued for other countries or regions.
This overwhelmingly large series marked the first mass-market push for Starbucks mugs: not only did each city get a mug, but also included were one or more of: tumblers, magnets, mini-mugs, and regional material like books and music. The number of cities has also ballooned to over forty, making it the largest release in the US since the original icon series. There are some who feel Starbucks inundated their stores to maximize profit, resulting in fewer collectors biting because of the sheer size of the "complete" collection. (Others think it's the best series yet.)
Three of the mugs in the architecture series were also redesigned and re-released for the 2006 holiday season, both in standard size and mini-mug (ornament) size. The general theme of the images seems to be holiday and shopping scenes.
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An allegedly minor run of mugs featuring cities and their (nearby) parks. This series is being released concurrently with additional mugs in the Architecture Series, making it the first time a new series was introduced in the US without completing phasing out the prior one.
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New series first introduced in China at the time of the Summery 2008 Olympic Games. Replaces the original 1994 International Series mugs, and purported to expand beyond China soon.
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