Starbucks Manhattan mug: Discovery Series

By The Starbucks Cups team · Last checked 2026-11-14 · How we make these pages

Starbucks Discovery Series Manhattan mug with a sandwich, a food cart, a saxophone, a dinosaur skeleton and a skyscraper around the word MANHATTAN — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The Manhattan Discovery Series mug sets the name in yellow-orange over a dark green circle, beside the Empire State Building, pastrami-style sandwiches, a T. rex skeleton, a saxophone and a hot dog cart. A striped cat, a BROADWAY sign and a yellow boat fill the other sides.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Manhattan, New York, USA
Type: Mug
Released: Not confirmed
Capacity: 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
SKU: Not confirmed

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The year New York sold its first T. rex

In early 1941 the American Museum of Natural History put its first Tyrannosaurus rex up for sale. It offered the skeleton to Yale, which turned it down ^[1]. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum bought it for $7,000 ^[2]. Barnum Brown had dug it out of Hell Creek, Montana, in 1902 ^[1], and when it went on display in December 1906 the crowds lined up for blocks ^[2]. Why sell? Mark Norell, a curator at the American Museum, says Brown thought New York would be bombed ^[1]. Carnegie's Matt Lamanna says Brown's own papers call the sale a way to raise money for the endowment ^[1]. Historians quoted by NPR say Brown's letters suggest he wanted cash for more digging ^[2]. The skeleton that reached Pittsburgh was also incomplete ^[2]. A rib stayed behind in a New York cabinet until a researcher recognised its number, 973, and it was carried to Pittsburgh in a backpack ^[2]. The open-jawed skeleton on the Manhattan mug (6) may stand for the museum's dinosaur halls.

The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.

What's on the mug

1
Lettering
MANHATTAN in yellow-orange capitals over a dark green circle.
2
Pastrami-style sandwiches and pickles
Two stacks of sliced red-pink meat between toasted, seeded bread, each held with a blue toothpick, sit at the upper left, with two dotted pickles beside them, one pale blue and one dark blue. They look like New York deli pastrami on rye with pickles, a deli staple. The mug names no deli, so we can't tie them to one.^[8]
3
Rising stock chart
A jagged red line with an arrowhead climbs to the upper right over blue bars, with a thinner orange line beneath it and small dollar signs along it. Nothing on the mug names an exchange or a street.
4
Hot dog and pretzel cart
A blue wheeled cart with two pretzels and a hot dog on its side panels, a shelf of bottles and condiments, and a pink, white and navy umbrella over it. It looks like a New York street-food cart, but the mug shows no vendor name.
5
Saxophone and drum kit
A yellow saxophone with pink notes floating from its bell stands beside a drum kit with a blue bass drum, a striped snare and a cymbal.
6
Tyrannosaurus skeleton
A pink-ribbed, blue-limbed skeleton strides across the lower left with its jaw open and its tail raised. It looks like the Tyrannosaurus rex mount at the American Museum of Natural History, which was re-mounted in a horizontal pose, but the drawing is too stylised to rule out another skeleton, and the mug doesn't name the museum.^[4]^[11]
7
Empire State Building
A tall, narrow tower in blue, purple and pink with stripes of lit windows stands at the left edge, its shaft stepping in above a wide base and rising to a thin spire. That matches the Empire State Building, whose 81-story shaft is set back sharply from a five-story base. The colours are the artist's, and the mug doesn't label it. It shows again at the right edge of the side photo.^[3]
8
Arched building with a round booth
A yellow-orange building with tall blue arched windows under a curved maroon vault sits at the upper right, with small figures walking below and a round booth among them, topped by a round shape on a gold post that looks like a clock. It resembles the Main Concourse of Grand Central Terminal, whose central information booth is topped by a four-faced brass clock and whose east and west walls each have three round-arched windows about 60 feet high. The drawing shows one large window rather than a clear row of three, and the mug names no station.^[5]^[12]
9
BROADWAY sign Side view
Pink-and-white lit letters spelling BROADWAY hang on a dark blue sign among the towers, with two ticket-shaped tags, one yellow and one pink, below it. The sign shows again on the back.
10
Singer at a microphone Side view
A person with long hair in a blue top and trousers holds a microphone with a trailing cord to her mouth and stands beside a microphone stand.
11
Striped cat Side view
A large pink cat with dark blue stripes and a long striped tail sits upright beside the fruit and bottles (18). The head and ears are a house cat's, not a tiger's, and a cat that lives in a shop is a bodega cat. It may be one; nothing on the mug says so, and a tiger can't be ruled out.^[7]^[10]
12
Red apple Side view
A large red apple sits at the right of the side view, next to the skyscraper, and half of it shows at the left edge of the front. It probably stands for New York's nickname, the Big Apple, first published as a euphemism for the city in 1921. The mug doesn't say so.^[9]
13
STARBUCKS wordmark Back view
The vertical STARBUCKS wordmark runs beside the handle on this side.
14
Yellow boat with a rider Back view
A yellow boat with orange and black marks and a person in blue seated in it floats on blue water with white wave lines.
15
Blue arched building and steps Back view
A blue stone building with an arched opening and columns stands above wide blue steps, with two people sitting on them, that end at a ledge above the water.
16
Lit towers that resemble Times Square Side view
A cluster of tall towers covered in blue, orange and pink lit panels stands at the left of the side view, with small figures in the street below and the BROADWAY sign in front. They look like Times Square, where Broadway meets Seventh Avenue and where zoning rules have required building owners to put up lit signs since 1987. No tower or sign is clear enough to name, and the mug doesn't say Times Square.^[6]
17
Pigeon
A small grey pigeon with a white and dark wing stands at the lower right of the front, near the handle.
18
Bananas and a crate of bottles Side view
A bunch of yellow bananas hangs at the cat's side, and a stack of small orange and blue crates holds bottles with a jar on top.
19
Small island with people Back view
A small tan island surrounded by blue water has several people sitting or lying on it, to the left of the yellow boat.

The three photos together cover most of the outside of the mug. The area behind the handle is out of view.

Collector notes

Discovery Series also has New York City, New York, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island mugs on our checklists; this one is lettered MANHATTAN.
The BROADWAY sign appears in both the side and the back photos, and the side and back photos show the mug on its dark teal gift box.

Before you buy

The photos show three sides of the mug and leave the area behind the handle out of view, so check the listing for the inside colour. This one is lettered MANHATTAN; the Discovery Series also has separate New York City, New York, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island mugs.