If all members of the group have their coins, the challenger has to pay. If one of the group presents a coin, the member of the group who doesn’t have theirs with them has to buy the next round or pay the tab.

Others may choose to make a more visible and public moment.ĭepending on how you learn about the tradition of the challenge coin, you might think the tradition has mostly to do with socializing the most common “use” of these coins in contemporary military circles involves a night on the town with a group of military members who may or may not be in the same organization. Some prefer to pass on a challenge coin like a “secret handshake” so that the recipient doesn’t see it coming. It’s not that people in the military specifically compete for them, but the coins are a kind of gesture that publicly recognizes the recipient of the coin in an informal or semi-formal way depending on the presentation.Ĭoins are often presented during unit musters, during the initial base tour of a new commander, during deployments or after military exercises, etc. They are used as incentives and recognition for hard work. Why?īecause challenge coins aren’t just handed out to everyone in the unit. There are definite uses for a challenge coin, but if you ask a unit commander or anyone else in a position of military authority, you may learn that team building and morale are the primary motivations for carrying on the tradition. Commemorative, But Not CurrencyĬhallenge coins are not considered currency-designing, printing, and distributing challenge coins works in a similar fashion to company t-shirts that you might find at a trade show-an individual unit or command designs and pays to have the coin manufactured-often out of “soda fund” or unit or organizational fundraising activities. Military challenge coins are manufactured by third parties-the Department of Defense does not have anything to do with the manufacture, design, or distribution of challenge coins, though organizations at the DoD level may have their own challenge coin just like other individual commands all over the world. Military challenge coins don’t always come uniformly round, either some may come in the shape of dog tags, some may be uniquely shaped to match a unit insignia, and others may look like shields, arrowheads, etc. Physically speaking, what is a challenge coin? Military challenge coins are not uniformly designed, but most of them are roughly silver dollar-sized and usually have a design or a crest, and often have a saying around the perimeter of the coin.

The coins are not “officially sanctioned” and their use is not required by the DoD, but as a tradition the use of such coins persists and will continue to do so. But the challenge coin has become one of those parts of military life that few outsiders are witness to (for no specific reason-it’s no secret) but has an important place where team unity, camaraderie, and esprit de corps are concerned.

Challenge coin