Challenge Coins and Military Coins

Challenge coins are an important part of military history. The United States armed forces place an important part of their history onto these challenge coins. Anyone who is part of the armed forces knows what a challenge coin is and may have even been issued one. Challenge coins are vital to knowing what unit you belong to, what branch you belong to and even what your rank is within your unit. The more information you find out about challenge coins, the more interesting it is to find out what challenge coins belong to you.

Challenge coins can be created by external companies for uses by organizations. For example, you may want to have a challenge coin created for yourself or your organization. This can be extremely high cost due to the fact that challenge coins usually have to be made from a custom die. Depending upon the company, a custom die may be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. There is then a per coin cost that is added on to that number.

Custom challenge coins have been issued for the Air Force and many other branches of the military. There are even some stories that individuals get to have challenge coins and then display them to individuals who need to verify their identity. Challenges coins can also be issued as rewards or awards. For example, someone may attain a higher level rank and may be assigned a commemorative challenge coin for being able to do so. Individuals need to remember that challenge coins are also a relatively new piece of military history. Most challenge coins were not used until the 1960’s and did not become extremely popular until the early 1990’s. They have been rising steadily in popularity due to the low cost of production as well as the high appeal of some memento to mark a special occasion.

Many challenge coins that are issued in the U.S. military are made in South Korea. The costs of the production are lower than they are in the United States and the tie to the military is strong. U.S. companies often use their connections to have their coins made in China. China has an even lower cost of production than Korea and are able to make a larger amount of coins faster. Challenge coins are only going to become more popular in the future.