Challenge Coins

[hardeodcafe]

I haven't seen a Thread on Military "Challenge" Coins in the Files yet...

Can everyone add their own Unit coins/stories here...


The ARmy Rumour SErvice (ARRSE) "Challenge Coin" has been produced in order to help a little known Charity called "Holidays For Heroes" who help the Families of wounded and fallen Servicemen and Women, for every Coin sold there is a Donation of $5 direct to this excellent Charity, the ARRSE Coin is the first Challenge Coin in the history of the "Challenge" Coin to have the actual Challenge/Coin Check Rules on the reverse side thus making it a highly unique and collectable Coin Among Coins. You can also purchase an EOD/Bomb Disposal Challenge Coin from the same Website, again $5 goes to the Charity for the Sale of these Coins also...

The site is the UKChallengecoins site but I can't add that here yet due to posting rules etc.

[hardeodcafe]

The History of the Challenge Coin

During World War I, American volunteers from all parts of the country filled the newly formed flying squadrons in Europe. Some were wealthy scions attending colleges such as Yale and Harvard who quit in mid-term to join the war. In one squadron, a wealthy lieutenant ordered medallions struck in solid bronze and presented them to his unit. One young pilot placed the medallion in a small leather pouch that he wore about his neck.
Shortly after acquiring the medallions, the pilot's aircraft was severely damaged by ground fire. He was forced to land behind enemy lines and was immediately captured by a German patrol.

In order to discourage his escape, the Germans took all of his personal identification except for the small leather pouch around his neck. In the meantime, he was taken to a small French town near the front. Taking advantage of a bombardment that night, he escaped. However, he was without personal identification.

He succeeded in avoiding German patrols by donning civilian attire and reached the front lines. With great difficulty, he crossed no-man's land. Eventually, he stumbled onto a French outpost. Unfortunately, saboteurs had plagued the French in the sector. They sometimes masqueraded as civilians and wore civilian clothes. Not recognizing the young pilot's American accent, the French thought him to be a saboteur and made ready to execute him. He had no identification to prove his allegiance, but he did have his leather pouch containing the medallion. He showed the medallion to his would-be executioners and one of his French captors recognized the squadron insignia on the medallion. They delayed his execution long enough for him to confirm his identity. Instead of shooting him they gave him a bottle of wine.

Back at his squadron, it became tradition to ensure that all members carried their medallion or coin at all times. This was accomplished through challenge in the following manner - a challenger would ask to see the medallion. If the challenged could not produce a medallion, they were required to buy a drink of choice for the member who challenged them. If the challenged member produced a medallion, then the challenging member was required to pay for the drink. This tradition continued on throughout the war and for many years after the war while surviving members of the squadron were still alive.

[Boats]

History of the Military Challenge Coin

Like a thousand other websites we also have the history of the Challenge Coin for your reading pleasure. Ours is a lot more fun because it’s factual. Unlike every other websites about coins you will find a strict “no BS policy” here in the U.S. Challenge Coin world. The same goes for our history of the challenge coin. So if you’re ready he it goes:

The challenge coin was born out of the….hmmm…I am not sure. Perhaps it was created by French…hmm…I don’t like that beginning either. Wait I know, it was created on impact by a WWII pilot…no, no, no….this can’t be it. Man this is tough. Every site out there has a version and even Wikipedia quotes some kind of history of the challenge coin. It’s amazing how we have different tales of how it became the object it is today. I just wish I could weave something about Vietnam in here but I won’t.

The history of the challenge coin is more myth than legend. Sure it has history and we have no doubt it’s a fairly good story but it remains to be proved. Our stance on the history of the challenge coin is that the history is not proven except by a few stories you find on some websites. We don’t put any weight into those stories except for a decent story hour to get you into the site and open your wallet a bit. So instead of telling you how some guy got shot out of the sky or how ammo troops issued the bottoms of their spent rounds to deserving individuals we ask you this one basic question. Does the history really influence your decision to collect?

If you answered yes then it’s ok. You can choose the history you read. You can decide what to accept as truth from tale. Since the day this company was built we took a hard stance not to publish a history though we received many prints of the possible origins and emails asking why we don’t. The history is non-existent in our eyes and that’s our position. We mark this hobby with what we can prove and that’s the way it should be.

To be fair we should also make a point that much of what you read on Wiki and other articles on the web are for selling purposes. Only a few websites offer genuine information on the hobby itself. There is nothing wrong with that but it has proven to be more inaccurate than anything else. Even a video piece that NBC used on challenge coins suffered by spouting legend from these articles instead of just avoiding misinformation.
If you feel this is inaccurate please let us know. We are all ears to see proof about the history and why we should publish an article on this subject. We want people to know it’s not because we don’t want to serve up a great read, but rather we never publish the history because one true history doesn’t exist.

[farmboy]

One source of coins was 10th Special Forces Group at Bad Tolz, Germany.

Since the 80s they have taken on a life of their own and have reached the status of "damn nuisance."

They are prolifically flailed about by anybody who can think one up.

Sadly, many are not even military related.