How to Celebrate Military Accomplishments With Challenge Coins

Challenge coins have become a celebrated tradition within the military and among veterans. These mementos represent excellence in achievement and belonging within units or other affiliations, and are prized possessions of the soldiers who receive them.

What is a Challenge Coin?

A challenge coin is a small medallion that signifies either membership in a group or some type of achievement. These coins often bear either writing or images that identify the nature of the coin's purpose.

Frequently, challenge coins are given discreetly through a handshake, often in private. For their recipients, challenge coins are a special point of pride, becoming valued possessions whose presence reminds their owners of notable times in their lives and the people they overcame adversity with.

Some examples of reasons why challenge coins might be issued include:

 Deployment overseas, especially a war or military action

 Belonging in a military unit

 Special distinction for service within a unit

 The successful completion of a mission or task

How to Celebrate Military Accomplishments with Challenge Coins

Often, a unit's commander is responsible for commissioning and handing out challenge coins. Traditionally, this is not a public presentation in front of a crowd, but a more intimate exchange that emphasizes the personal connection and respect the giver holds for the recipient.

Once a challenge coin has been given, the recipient is responsible for keeping and maintaining the coin, with a handful of rules or accepted etiquette governing this. A challenge coin should be kept clean and well-maintained, and the owner shouldn't drill a hole through it. The coin isn't meant to be jewelry or a belt buckle, with the exception being that it's acceptable to carry the coin in a pouch around the neck.

Traditionally, someone with a shared challenge coin can initiate a check to see whether everyone else in the vicinity can produce their challenge coin. Usually, the rules state that anyone who can't produce the coin buys drinks for the others, but if everyone can produce their coin, the challenger who initiated the check buys drinks.

The challenger starts the check by tapping or placing their coin on a table or other surface. Every other coin holder must produce their coin within four steps of their position when the check is initiated.

Other Key Facts About Challenge Coins

Challenge coins have a celebrated history in the United States military, dating back to World War I. According to the accepted story, the first challenge coin saved the life of the soldier who carried it.

Shot down behind enemy lines and captured, the soldier managed to escape in civilian clothes and reach French soldiers, but had no way to prove his identity as a US soldier. Facing execution, the soldier produced a coin inscribed with his unit's insignia and was spared.

Challenge coins became increasingly popular during the Vietnam War, and since then have been a staple in the military. In fact, veterans who worked jobs like police, firefighters and other first responders exported the practice to these organizations, and now challenge coins are prevalent in a number of non-military settings.