Reading – Coining A Galaxy

If you have any interest at all in the vintage Kenner Star Wars coins of the eighties then you need this book. Coining A Galaxy (website) is 82-pages packed with photos and information on coins from The Power of the Force, Droids, and Ewoks . . . plus info on coins of the nineties and lots of information on the creation process behind the coins. I have no more interest after reading the book in collecting the coins than I did before reading the book, but even my casual interest was rewarded because it’s such a well-crafted and entertaining book.

So Many Photos!

The sample pages shown here — all taken directly from the Coining A Galaxy website — are just a taste of what’s inside. The above image, showing the front and back of five different coins, has many, many pages like it inside. I do wish the coin images were just a little larger, but these are big enough to see them and the size appears to strike a good balance between readable and keeping the page count of the book reasonable.

I love that the authors included the text of the back of each coin, since reading the actual text on the coins in the images is a little tough on my eyes. As presented, the book is easy to read and I find it fun to simply flip through the pages and look at just how many coins — and variations! — were produced.

How Coins Were Made

The best part of the book, for me, has to be the twelve-page section at the beginning showing us how Kenner made the coins. Internal documents, tooling, sculpts, artwork, and more pack this section of the book and make this very likely the most comprehensive book we can ever expect to see on these collectible coins. I never once considered trying to collect the coins, let alone all of the bits used to make them, but it makes me happy to see that the authors — James Gallo and Mark Salotti — put so much time and energy into the book.

Closing Thoughts

I strongly suspect that when the Kenner designers sat down thirty years ago to create the coins they never once though a book would be devoted to the coins, but this is exactly the sort of book I love and the $27 I spent on the book (ordering page here) was money very well spent. The book’s small size — roughly 8.5-inches wide by 6-inches tall — makes it easy and comfortable to flip through, and the level of detail the authors dive into makes it a blast to read and flip through.

Highly recommended if you have any interest at all in these classic coins, even if you never plan to start a collection of the coins.