Hi Guys,

Below are photos of a coin from 1985 commemorating the 150th year of the Osborne Coinage company. Contracted to produce the POTF coins, the company informed me the coin would be given away at trade shows and exhibitions to promote the company. The coin may also have been packaged with POTF figures sold in Australia.

Growing up in Australia in the 80s, my small collection of coins included Yak Face, Anakin Skywalker and Gamorean Guard. At the very end of the POTF line, due to certain figures (possibly Paploo, CP30 w/ removable limbs or Darth Vader) being in greater supply than their coins, perhaps due to the various coin give aways, the Osborne coin may have been used as a spare for the last of the figures to be shipped to Australia. That's the best theory I can think of as to how the coin ended up in my collection, and the three figures listed above are the only POTF line figures I had which could have been packaged with the coin.

I've emailed several collectors, and so far they seem to think my theory makes sense, noting the coin most likely wasn't packaged with figures intentionally, but a few might have slipped through the door. None had seen the coin previously.

Although I'm interested in hanging on to the coin at this stage, I would be very interested to hear people's thoughts on the coin and it place among the POTF collection.

Regards,

KB

That's very cool, never seen or heard about this before!

You are right though, plenty of POTF and ROTJ figures were shipped by the boat load to Australia towards the end of the line!

Good luck on the hunt for more info!

http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t3324-power-of-the-force-coins-facebook-group?highlight=facebook
maybe you can contact Mark Salotti or James Galo ( I'm not sure if either are on the facebook thing ) Tim could probably help with the research too.

&

Hi KB and

That coin looks so cool, I have never seen such a coin before

Welcome KB. Very interesting stuff.

PM sent.

Hi Guys,

I know it's been a while, but I recently came across what may be an important clue regarding the 150th Year Osborne Coinage coin from 1985 that I posted about several years ago.

When I last posted, I had contacted several POTF coin experts, but none had seen or heard of the coin before. I always thought the coin came packaged with a POTF figure sold here in Australia as it was kept with my other Star Wars coins for as long as I can remember. Other possibilities, such as obtaining the coin at a trade show where Osborne said it was distributed, seem very unlikely as we never travelled to the US, and I'm unaware of the company being at any trade shows in Australia during this time.

While I've kept good track of my figures and handful of coins, almost all the card backs, with the notable exception of Yak Face, have been lost over the years. So going through which possible POTF-released (as opposed to ESB or ROTJ) figures I had with a coin unaccounted for, I was left with Paploo, C3PO with removable limbs, and Darth Vader. When reading about the confusion over the 'last 17', I discovered that ROTJ Paploo was a US-only release, so my Australian-bought Paploo had to have been the POTF version.

If I'd owned a Paploo coin, however briefly, I'm sure I would've remembered it, so I'm confident the 150th Year Coin came packaged with the Ewok. As Paploo (along with Lumat) was made in Mexico, I believe that with the line coming to an end, and with the remaining figures to be shipped to Australia where it was still going strong, the factory had a shortage of Paploo coins and used the 150th Year coin from Osborne as a fill-in for the last few figures.

I look forward to hearing what you guys think and welcome any feedback.

KB

Welcome back- I can not see any pictures thou?

Thanks for the reply, James. I've re-posted my photos from last time as it looks like they're no longer showing. I just finished a small display case for my childhood 'Australian exclusive' coins: Yak Face, Anakin, Gammorean Guard, Warok (from Nikto and the At-AT Driver) and the 150th Year coin. But I'm living overseas at the moment, and the coins are back in Oz, so it might be a few months before I can post a picture of them all together. In the meantime, here's a photo of the Osborne coin next to Yak Face to show their similarities in size and style as well as a reverse shot.

I've never seen that before or heard of it. Maybe ask the experts on the POTF coin FB page.

I think checking with the POTF coin FB group would be a good idea, but just to expand on my Paploo theory: a POTF coin expert had rightfully questioned why, given a shortage of a particular coin, a totally new one would be used in its place instead of one of the many other coins in the line, especially as the Warok coin was used with both Nikto and the AT-AT Driver. I think I might now have the answer.

From what I understand, both Paploo and Lumat (including figures, weapons and cardbacks - Lili Ledy, ROTJ, Tri-Logo, POTF) were made and packaged in Mexico (Ledy) while none of the other carded POTF figures were made in that country. The only thing they didn't produce domestically for the two Ewoks was the coins. With the Paploo coin coming from the World Wide Mint, Lumat would've been the only Osborne POTF coin sent to Mexico for production.

So, with a shortage of Paploo coins and the figures at the end of the line, waiting to be shipped to Australia, Ledy would've been faced with either losing money by not carding the remaining figures or using an incorrect Lumat coin. But as that would in turn reduce the number of Lumat figures they could card, while also confusing the buyer, it makes sense that either as a precaution, or on request, Osborne slipped in another one of its coins (attractive while still relevant to the line) as a spare.

But still there's the question, why not just send down another POTF coin instead? Well, even if there were some spare stock available, this would essentially mean taking it from one of the factories around the world where huge numbers of figures were being produced and sending it to a place where they weren't even producing that figure.

That's where the Osborne 150th year coin comes in. To summarise, I think it was sent together with the Lumat coin from the mint in Ohio to Lili Ledy in Mexico where it then made its way to Australia via the Paploo POTF figure and into my collection.

As always, I'm happy to hear anyone's thoughts, and will be in touch with any further updates.

Looking back at the reply from Osborne, they said the 150th Year coin was used as a business sample to commemorate their anniversary, so I now think one or more were sent with the Lumat coins to Lili Ledy as a free memento. They would've been separate from the bulk-packed main order, but somewhere in the factory at least one became mixed with the Paploo coins and made its way onto a cardback,