Showcase of our best challenge coins

Custom challenge coins are medallions or emblems made of copper, brass, silver and rarely gold. The oldest usage of challenge coins in history can be traced back to Ancient Rome, when soldiers who demonstrated valor on the day’s battle were presented with a challenge coin as a memento. Later in history challenge coin usage sprouted-up during the World War I, when a rich American lieutenant of one flying squadron presented all the unit members with a challenge coin and one of the pilots who received the challenge coin from the Lieutenant later got caught by Germans after his plane was bombed-down. The Germans to be sure that the American pilot does not escape stripped out all his identities but for the challenge coin he possessed.

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 Later on, one night, taking chance out of a heavy bombing on the German-held territory; the American pilot sneaked out from the German incarceration and escaped. By sheer chance he ended-up in a French-held territory after escaping from the Germans. The Germans mistaking him for a traitor missing to notice his American accent ordered his execution. Fortune smiled on the American pilot through a French officer who happened to notice his challenge coins and identified his affiliation to the US squadron; with this the American pilot was relieved of the execution. This successful escape of the American pilot just because of the challenge coin was responsible for making it mandatory for all the military men to carry challenge coins.

     

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                                                                       Challenge coins, later infiltrated into the mainstream and general public started using challenge coins for different occasions and purposes. Presently challenge coins are used by businesses, clubs, Police and the Fire departments, by organizations to felicitate employees for achievements or service and for numerous other purposes. This wide use of challenge coins made it inevitable for the companies minting challenge coins to mint the best of challenge coins for them to be unique; there by matching various customer requirements. Keeping in view this huge demand of challenge coins; we at our company take utmost care in the production of ‘the best challenge coins’ that you could get from the market. We have a team of art designers who possess the best of craftsmanship in designing art for our challenge coins.

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 Our art designers attentively listen to the art design requirements of the customers, trying their best to translate near perfectly the design envisioned by the customer. Our best challenge coins are just the fruits of this level of attentiveness and concern we always emphasized on our customers’ expectations. Our range of best challenge coins comprise those made for the military, Police and the Fire departments, sports clubs, social causes, businesses and much more! We invite you to visit the ‘Gallery’ section of our website, and have a look at some best challenge coins we put on display. We give you the convenience to communicate with our art designers about the design of the challenge coins you wish to be minted and customize the shape, size, color, metal, also the names, logos, quotes and brand names. We also let you see a sample of your customized challenge coin before the actual challenge coin is minted, just to ensure that your customized challenge coin turns out to be amongst our best challenge coins minted

5 Amazing styles of custom challenge coins

Custom challenge coins – the origins of challenge coins have interesting and diverse accounts to recall, primarily started among US army circles as an identification of affiliation to a unit or as a ‘memento’ for valor and exceptional performance. Initially to encourage the habit of carrying a challenge coin, a system of light-hearted ‘challenge’ was conceived; wherein the challenger used to challenge the other member to show their challenge coin, if the challenged was unable to show his challenge coin, the challenger had the privilege to get paid for drinks from the challenged. And if the challenged showed the challenge coin on demand the challenger has to buy drinks to the challenged. This blithely challenge widely popularized the use of challenge coins in military circles and was significantly responsible for spreading the popularity of challenge coins. In due course, it turned inevitable to have a variety of custom challenge coins to be unique and given the popularity of challenge coins among general public at present different styles of custom challenge coins emerged.

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                                                                      A custom challenge coin is one which is designed to be unique for a specific organization, achievement, unit or any other purpose for that matter. Custom challenge coins, being considered as a prized possession by its possessors, undoubtedly deserve utmost perfection in terms of style, design, make and material. Presently, there are a couple of challenge coin vendors; but a very few who could promise to deliver custom challenge coins following the customers requirement, as designing a custom challenge coin demands the highest skills in envisioning a design and actually minting it to the customer’s taste. The ability to deliver custom challenge coins precisely satiating the customer’s taste thus is truly an art in itself!

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                                                                     The style of a custom challenge coin makes it unique there by imparting it an ‘antique value’. So, the style and appearance of a challenge coin plays a decisive role in customizing it. Basically made with brass given its durability and appealing finish, custom challenge coins can also be made with gold and enamel; and various other options exist depending upon the budget of the customer. Also, different styles of custom challenge coins can be made tweaking with the edges and rim of challenge coins. As we are well aware a coin has two faces; the ‘heads’ face of a coin is called ‘obverse’ and the ‘tails’ face is called ‘reverse’. The space between the obverse and reverse which runs through the circumference of the coin is called the ‘Edge’ of the coin; and the elevated portion on both the faces of  a coin running across the diameter of the coin is called the ‘Rim’ of the coin, so a coin eventually has one edge and 2 rims. A lot of customization can be done with this rim and edge of the coins making the challenge coins look marvelous and appealing!

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                                                                   Coming to the 5 amazing styles of custom challenge coins, I personally suggest the following,

1. Metal Styles – metal styled custom challenge coins look extremely appealing for their fine metallic sheen and bold look. Options in metal styled custom challenge coins include polished gold metal, polished brass, polished silver, black nickel, and polished copper. Often times a vendor might also offer additional finishing options like antique gold, antique silver and antique copper.
2. Diamond cut edges – as mentioned earlier in the topic ‘edge’ of the challenge coin can be beautifully customized into rope-cut, cross-cut, wave-cut and oblique-cut edges, there by stylizing a custom challenge coin.
3. 3D designs – this gives a custom challenge coin the depth for its design and makes a challenge coin very unique to present.
4. Sequentially numbered coins – another interesting option for stylizing a custom challenge coin is ‘sequencing’. This makes it possible to have serial numbers on the coin so that the possessors of the coin fall under a sequence for receiving it, which makes the possessor so unique among the recipients.
5. Engraved text – text engraved upon a custom challenge coin imparts a majestic look to the coin, with the name of the organization or the recipient engraved on the face of the challenge coin.

                                                  There are several other options for stylizing a custom challenge coin apart from those mentioned above; and the taste of the customer and creativity of the maker are the only limits to it!

5 best ideas for personalized wedding coins

Wedding truly is a second life for the couple……that life, when the couple bound by marriage vows get on a new journey as “Man” and “Wife”. Spiritually or materially wedding gives the noblest of meanings to human life! This ‘time frame of life’, truly deserves the best of memories to be captured……better done innovatively through ‘personalized wedding coins’. Personalized coins that penetrated diverse aspects of human lives, namely, business, sororities, hobby clubs and for promoting social causes; well deserve their entry into wedding, to make the occasion more memorable.

Wedding challenge coin

                                                                        Designing a personalized wedding coin needs extra-ordinary attention right from the inception of the idea to incorporate them into a wedding ceremony. Its design should be so conceived that, it both appeals to the eye of the recipient, and makes an indelible impression on their hearts, affirming that the couple are remembered as long as it is in the recipient’s possession. It is of paramount importance that, its design is well-conceived and thoroughly planned on paper before consulting the designers of the minting company. This homework translates into a better output by the co-ordinated efforts of the customer and the designer. Next best thing to do would be to decide on the metal to be used, typically silver being used; it could well be replaced by gold depending on the budget of the customer. After deciding on the metal, the next best thing is to decide upon the artwork. As we all know, a coin has two faces; one can devise to have the couple’s photo etching on one face and any emblem or the names of the couple engraved with the year of marriage in a fine-looking artwork on the other face. 

Engagement challenge coin

                                                              The creativity one can express here is limitless! Next follows, deciding on the edge of the coin; through ‘edging’ one can impart a diamond-cut edge, a rope-cut edge, or an oblique-cut edge. Planned edging gives that extra sassy or alluring appearance. Next best thing to think about would be to finalize upon the enamel finishing; it could either be hard or soft enamel finished. Hard enamel finishing would look smoother in appearance as there would be no apparent difference between the levelled and raised areas and further, hard enamel finishing costs more than the soft. To make it more appealing and as an elegant finishing touch; presenting the coin in an attractive display case would not be a bad idea. Display cases are available in an array of designs and materials: crystal display cases, desktop display cases, table top display cases – just to name a few!

Wedding of Daniel and  Emma

                                                                   To summarize, the 5 best ideas for personalized wedding coins, challenge coins are as follows,

1. Conceiving the best possible design on paper by the customer before finalizing the design with the minting company designer
2. Deciding upon the metal/material
3. Planning the artwork
4. Conceiving a proper and suitable edge
5. Choosing apt enamel finishing
6. Planning for an attractive coin case as an additional option to enhance the beauty of presentation

                                                    The aforementioned planning and ideas would definitely make the personalized wedding coin a truly memorable present to the wedding party.

Contact us @: sales@challengecoins101.com