A Smooshed Penny Souvenir It Ain’t

Forget condom machines in the bathroom. Don’t even think about a snack machine. If you go to the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi you’ll find a vending machine that sells gold. Three hundred twenty gold items as a matter of fact, ranging from jewelry to customized gold coins, with prices that automatically change every 10 minutes according to the price of gold on the international market. You have to feel sorry for the poor kids whose Moms and Dads return from a vacation and hand them an ingot that says: “My parents went to the Emirates Palace hotel and all I got was this lousy 10 gram gold bar.”