Purchasing a Challenge Coin: Here’s How To
Challenge coins are used to honor military organizations, occasions, and troops. They have become a cherished part of many groups’ cultures and are a great source of pride. While most people think of round challenge coins, they can be created in various shapes. Adding kinetic features to your coin can make it stand out.
Designing Your Coins
A challenge coin is a unique way to honor your employees and your organization or group members. They can also be used to promote special events or cultural traditions. These coins are a cherished memento and an important part of many groups’ cultures. These coins symbolize pride and camaraderie, from masonic organizations and law enforcement to military units and firefighters.
Creating custom coins starts with thinking about what you want your coin to look like. Are you looking for a basic design or something more elaborate? What size do you want your coin to be? How will the coin be used? The answers to these questions help determine the type of artwork and other details on your coin.
In terms of size, a moderate-sized coin is usually the best option for day-to-day wear. It allows you to include fine details without making the coin too large or heavy to hold comfortably. If you’re considering a larger coin, it’s worth exploring the trade-off between size and design detail to ensure your challenge coin is visually appealing while remaining within budget constraints.
Choosing the right plating is another crucial part of designing your challenge coin. Using different plating colors adds an extra element of customization and helps create a coin that stands out. For example, silver plating is a great complement to enamel colors such as red or blue.
Getting a Quote
First appearing during World War I, challenge coins are used by groups and organizations to honor their members. They can feature your group’s symbol and be customized to include details of an event or other information about your group. Many people also use them to encourage positive behavior and to instill a sense of belonging in their teams.
Today, these small custom coin tokens are a popular choice for companies, police and fire departments, schools, and even charities. When you’re ready to have your custom challenge coins made, getting a quote is easy. Just send us your design and the quantity you want to order, and we’ll provide a price quote for you. The price you get will depend on a few factors, including the size of your coins and the number of features you want to add to your design.
Bigger coins require bigger molds and more materials, so you’ll have to pay a premium. Another factor that affects pricing is the coloration of your coins. We suggest you keep your designs to seven colors or less, saving you money on production costs. If you’re looking for a fun way to make your custom challenge coins stand out, we can add glow enamels! These luminescent colors will make your coins shine, even in the dark.
Ordering Your Coins
The most important step in designing your custom challenge coin is to figure out “why” you want one – this will help dictate what features need to be incorporated. The answer will also determine the complexity of the design, industry standards and plating choices. Knowing who the coins will be for will also inform what traditional sizes to use and the add-ons that are available based on application and industry.
A challenge coin is a small, round metal object bearing an organization’s insignia or emblem and worn as a symbol of membership or affiliation. Military commanders originally issued them as a form of informal recognition or to reward “above and beyond” performance. Still, the tradition has now spread to many organizations, schools, teams, businesses, and all branches of the armed forces.
Kinetic features like spinner coins and gyro coins are also available. Still, these will increase your order size and cost as they require a special die shape mold to produce and the coin to be plated in two finishes (one on the front and back of the base coin and the gyro in the middle). We can even create a photo insert on a challenge coin for a small additional charge.
Shipping Your Coins
When you have finished the design process and received a quote for your custom challenge coin, it is time to make the order. While this may seem straightforward, there are a few things to remember when ordering your coins to ensure you get the most accurate and high-quality possible.
The first thing to consider is the shape of your coin. While traditional round challenge coins still make up the majority of orders, many options are available, including square and octagonal shapes, 3D molds, and upgrades to your edges or base metal.
Once your coins are ready, it is time to ship them out. When shipping coins, it is important to properly package them so that they do not get damaged in transit. Use a Mylar flip for each coin you send and a corrugated adhesive mailer for the best results. These are inexpensive and protect your coin from moving around in the box.
If you have any special kinetic features on your coin (spinner coins, gyro coins, etc.), take the extra time to package them properly. It will help to prevent them from getting lost or damaging each other in transit. It is also a good idea to use Registered Mail for any packages that contain valuable coins. It will provide delivery confirmation and insurance if a loss or damage occurs.
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