Coin devaluation?

[Chris Boonzaier]

As a kid I was always fascinated by the concept of challenge coins... would have loved to have had a sacred 5th SFG coin...

Nowdays they seen to be rather devalued.... A couple of my work colleagues tossed these over to me as they know I collect old army stuff... both were given at the airport to airport employees for just doing simple stuff like changing seats or checking in....

Bit of a devaluation of unit coins?

[sambolini]

Hi,

I had never heard of a challenge coin until my son joined the Army back in 2002. I myself spent 8 years in the USMC. When did this practice start and what exactly are they for? I'm still don't really understand them even after my son gave me a somewhat rambling explanation.

Kind regards,

Sam

[JBFloyd]

"Challenge Coin" has come to mean just about anything with a unit designation on it.

The lore is that challenge coins were carried to demonstrate unit membership. You were given one upon completion of whatever training was required for unit membership. The real use was as part of a bar game. One could issue a challenge by slapping your coin on the bar; anyone without his coin had to buy the next round. This was even extended beyond the bar.

Now, every first sergeant seems to have one that is used as a give-away to unit visitors, atta-boys, shims for short table legs, whatever. Some of these have multi-color enamel and detailed, elaborate designs, looking like Technicolor hockey pucks. These seem to collected the way folks used to collect match books.

The first use of a challenge coin I ever witnessed was in 1975. A 5th SF officer was challenged in the Lowry AFB Officers' Club. He produced his coin, thereby requiring the challenger to buy the round. Many brain cells were killed that night.

I've never been able to convince myself that these things are "collectable".

[sambolini]

\"Challenge Coin\" has come to mean just about anything with a unit designation on it.

The lore is that challenge coins were carried to demonstrate unit membership. You were given one upon completion of whatever training was required for unit membership. The real use was as part of a bar game. One could issue a challenge by slapping your coin on the bar; anyone without his coin had to buy the next round. This was even extended beyond the bar.

Now, every first sergeant seems to have one that is used as a give-away to unit visitors, atta-boys, shims for short table legs, whatever. Some of these have multi-color enamel and detailed, elaborate designs, looking like Technicolor hockey pucks. These seem to collected the way folks used to collect match books.

The first use of a challenge coin I ever witnessed was in 1975. A 5th SF officer was challenged in the Lowry AFB Officers\' Club. He produced his coin, thereby requiring the challenger to buy the round. Many brain cells were killed that night.

I've never been able to convince myself that these things are \"collectable\".

Edited January 11, 2009 by sambolini

[JonErik]

My dad got a bunch of those coins when he was in the army. They were mainly giving by Generals and Colonel's, alot of these coins are giving out in place of Medals for Civilians. After my dad retired and was hired by a company called Task or ASPO the Army space program office he got some from that company.

Here are the ones i have the big one on the right was givin by a 3 star general, the one next to it i got from one of his friends in the Army that was at his funeral when we buried him, and the one next to it was from the TASK/ASPO thing, and then next to that i belive he got sometime in Military Inteligence.

Edited January 14, 2009 by JonErik