Military
Challenge Coins
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How Unit Coins Started
The stories trace challenge coins to the military. The best-known tale is a World War I flying squadron’s bronze medallion, carried so a downed pilot could prove he belonged to the unit. People still debate that story because no two versions match. Units kept the habit anyway. They have carried coins and traded them ever since. Someone calls for the coin in a bar and the member who cannot produce one buys the round. That challenge is as old as the pocket coin itself.
That habit did not stay inside the fence. Police departments picked it up from units they worked beside. Firehouses and EMS crews followed. Government offices came next, and so did companies handing them out at retirements. Someone in each of those groups designed a coin for their own people, and someone else had to earn it. If you are ordering for a unit, you are ordering the original form. A unit coin still says who you stood with, the same way it did when the first squadrons carried one. Whoever places the order is the one who has to know how a unit coin order gets approved and paid, from the free proof all the way to payment.
The Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard each have their own traditions and their own reasons for giving coins. If you order for one branch, head to yours.
New to challenge coins? Learn what a challenge coin is, its history, and traditions »
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One rotation
one coin
One deployment deserves its own coin. Name the people who served that rotation, with the years stamped where a thumb finds them. You will trade the extras downrange and keep yours for decades.
Give Bravo
its own coin
Battalion coins cover the whole formation. Bravo still needs one that only that company carries, with the company letter matching the guidon, and Alpha and Charlie can do the same. A platoon or a shift inside the company can carry its own coin.
Nickname front
call sign back
People in your unit already use a nickname. Put that name on the front with the mascot large enough to read across a table, and place the call sign on the flip side. A rhino or a winged skull can sit with the name if that is your mascot.
Ready to create your Challenge Coins?
We've got answers
Everything you need to know about designing, ordering, and creating your custom military challenge coins.
We offer gold, silver and copper platings standard with our orders. We also offer upgraded antique finishes that give an aged look to your coins. Antique finishes help greatly when your design is mostly metal (die struck) as the darker recessed areas provide a greater contrast for text and fine lines. We also offer some specialty colored metals that have a similar appearance to powder-coating (no charge), black nickel (a shiny gunmetal appearance), and now an iridescent rainbow plating (price on request).
The minimum order is 50 coins, but we always recommend ordering 100 due to the quantity discount at this quantity. Typically ordering 100 coins is only ~20% more expensive than ordering 50.
Our coins are made from brass metal if they are round. If the coins are a special shape or feature a high-relief 3D design, the material is a zinc alloy. We can also make coins out of copper, iron, and aluminum depending on your needs.
We keep your coin’s mold for a period of 3 years. If you reorder in that 3 year period, the 3 year storage period starts over!
We have multiple options for production location depending on your design choice and budget. We have manufacturing here in Florida and also overseas. Please consult with one of our sales professionals about what will work best for your challenge coin order.
You do not pay for a mold fee again on a reorder as long as the previous mold is still on file (kept for 3 years from the latest order date).