Looking for The Best Custom Challenge Coin Maker?
When searching for the best custom challenge coin maker in the market, there are a few things you want to look for.
- How long has this challenge coin maker been in business?
- How long does it take on average for this challenge coin maker to create your design,make your coins, and deliver your coins to you?
- Do you need a finished challenge coin design, or can the custom challenge coin maker do that for you? Do they charge for the design and make you pay before seeing anything?
- What is the minimum quantity this custom challenge coin maker will produce ?
- Does the manufacturer have a reputation (good or bad) documented by a third party? Do they stand behind their products and provide a guarantee for their custom coin work?
Before we dive into why Signature Coins is the best custom challenge coin maker on the market, let’s take a quick look at what challenge coins are, what they represent, and how they are made
What is a challenge coin?
A challenge coin is usually a metal coin or medallion that bears the insignia of an organization, an emblem or logo. These custom medallions are usually carried by the members of that group/organization. Traditionally, challenge coins were used by the military and displayed by service men and women to prove exclusive membership, and to enhance the units' morale and camaraderie. The custom coins would be carried by the recipient service men and women and displayed to prove membership in an exclusive unit or that the individual was part of a specific mission or campaign. In order to get quality coins, you need a custom challenge coin maker that has knowledge and experience creating custom awards that transform meaning into metal that lasts a lifetime.
Why use a challenge coin? How?
Although challenge coin history has been shrouded in mystery and legend, today challenge coins are taking on a new life with a variety of novel uses while still maintaining a strong connection to the original challenge coin tradition of being a meaningful symbol . More and more people today use custom challenge coins to award accomplishments to their various teams, units or departments. Whether celebrating a rank promotion, sales goal, amazing customer service, or marking a milestone for years of commitment, people are finding different reasons to award custom challenge coins to their teams. As a market leading custom challenge coin maker since 2000, we've made millions of custom challenge coins for all types of organizations, government agencies, clubs, businesses and individuals. From Air Force challenge coins to custom police challenge coins, fire department coins, or challenge coins for breweries, if you can think of it, we’ve probably made a coin for it.
Now why would we claim to be the best custom challenge coin maker in the market?
Service is the bar used when comparing custom challenge coin makers.
Signature Coins have been making custom challenge coins since 2000, and one of our biggest investments over the last 20 years has been dedicated to serving our customers, better, faster and with more options. While many of our competitors outsource their labor to foreign countries or employee minimum wage workers, we maintain a 100% American workforce for sales, customer service, and design staffed by professional salespeople and designers. We want to make the best custom coins and provide the best experience to our customers. We can only do that by investing in our team and hiring only the best.
We have always provided free design and artwork services.
Signature Coins has designed custom challenge coins specifically for production for 20 years now. We have had the pleasure of working with clients in all sectors and industries. Our art department can provide years of design and production experience that directly translates to a better custom product for our clients.
We have a ton of creative customers that love to provide their own coin artwork or designs. Our art department makes sure that your artwork meets minimum production requirements and color gamut for enamel fills. These checks are free of charge, but ensure you will get an amazing challenge coin once produced. We also advise on how the design will translate to the finished custom coin once in-hands.
Don’t have a custom challenge coin design?
Signature Coins’ custom coin designers have over 100 years of cumulative challenge coin design experience. Our staff of artists includes designers that have worked for Walt Disney and on AAA videos games including Call of Duty. We are ready to help you turn your idea into a one-of-a-kind coin you can be proud of.
The process of starting your custom challenge coin design is simple. You can start by submitting a napkin drawing of your ideas, a written description and some images, or download our design guide and template. Even if you can’t draw a stick figure, you will be surprised at how easy it is to send us your ideas.
When you request artwork, you will receive a free quote and artwork from us. Other companies charge a fee to create challenge coin artwork. We understand that designing an important commemorative award can be tough, so all proofs, quotes and revisions from Signature Coins are completely free.
Custom Challenge Coin Maker
Coca-Cola Bottling
The spur edge is one of the free edge options we offer. It's one of the edge options that work to change the look as well as the feel of your coins.
Diabolis Coin
One of the most striking things about this Diabolis coin is how much detail was fit into the 3D coin mold of such a small coin. When looking, it can be hard to believe it's only 1.5".
Navy SEAL Challenge Coin
Slightly darker than antique silver, antique nickel coins most closely resemble gunmetal grey. The plating adds a sense of strength and durability to the coins.
Bank of America
For brands like Bank of America, their logo is enough to make the coin immediately recognizable. That fact didn't stop this customer from selecting a high polish silver plating to increase the coin's perceived value and black enamel to add contrast to the outside edge.
PayPal Coin
When working with well-known brands, getting the colors exactly right is crucial because if the color is off even a little, everyone who sees the coin will know it. This high polish silver coin from PayPal uses the exact Pantone colors from the company's brand guidelines to avoid that sort of thing.
501st Firefighter Coin
The 501st Legion is a regular customer of ours, and their garrisons from all over the world regularly contact us for challenge coins. Their coins are often 1.75", like this one, but can feature any artwork desired. This antique silver coin makes use of white, red and black enamel for its design.
Nick Off-Duty Challenge Coin
With the inclusion of the YouTube logo and the thin blue line, this law enforcement coin for Nick Off-Duty has a red, white and blue color scheme we see on a lot of different coins, but instead of using it to color the American flag, this coin employs the colors in an interesting and more unique way.
Godiva Renaissance
This coin from Godiva and Renaissance make use of high polish gold plating and a flat weave edge to convey a sense of wealth.
NASA Coin
This NASA coin makes use of raised text plated in high polish silver set against the dark NASA brand colors to create its design. The rope edge is a great way to add texture to an otherwise flat coin.
How about the speed and quality of your custom challenge coin maker?
At Signature Coins, we are able to manufacture complex shapes and cutouts in our custom challenge coins, that includes bottle openers and multi-tools. The speed of production depends on the various options chosen for your custom challenge coin design. That said, our average production time for custom coins generally beats out our competitor’s rush options. On average from start to finish, making a challenge coin usually takes 10 to 14 days.
We offer a variety of custom challenge coin options that can help your custom coin stand out. From different edges, different plating options, complex shapes and cutouts, we have made it all. If you can think of it, we can make it!
Looking for a bit more detail about how challenge coins are produced? You can take a look at our Custom Challenge Coin Production Process video below.
When looking for a custom challenge coin maker, what are the minimum quantities to look for?
If you’re looking for custom challenge coins, there are minimum quantity order requirements (unfortunately). We have a few options if you just need a few coins though. We have a couple of stock and personalized coins that have no minimums and we are committed to increasing the number of options offered.
For custom coin orders, we have to machine custom coin molds before we can begin production, which is time consuming and takes a lot of resources on our end. We also invest a lot of human resources in our design process which isn’t feasible for single or low quantity coin orders. Due to the inherent costs of designing and manufacturing custom challenge coins, the lowest number of coins we can make in a single run is 50 coins. Our customers will find a better price per coin when ordering in larger quantities than our minimum order. Even increasing the quantity of coins to just 100 coins leads to a dramatic drop in unit price -- think 2 times as many coins for only 20-30% more in cost.
At Signature Coins, we create an amazing custom design specific to each and every customer’s needs. We strive to be the best custom challenge coin maker on the market and are proud to continue that effort with new personalizable coins. With personalizable challenge coins, we give our customers the opportunity to order single or small orders of coins that have been beautifully designed and produced but with a personalized message text or team colors. You can see some personalized challenge coin options here.
Checking the quality and materials your challenge coin maker uses
How do you ensure you are working with a quality custom challenge coin maker?
One way you can check the quality of your custom challenge coin maker is to look over their reviews, and see both negative and positive feedback. Like many companies, all challenge coin makers will have some good and bad reviews. Signature Coins has helped hundreds of thousands of clients from all over the world. We letour customer reviews speak for themselves.
Another very clear way to check the quality of your custom challenge coin maker is to see if they have a sample pack of custom coins you can purchase and inspect with your own hands. At Signature Coins we provide an assorted sample pack of custom challenge coins that you can purchase. They are chosen at random and often show various custom coin upgrades and enamels. From there you can see (and feel) the quality and craftsmanship put into each and every custom coin project we work on.
It’s one thing to say we’re the best challenge coin maker. We stand behind our product fully and offer a written 100% Quality and Craftsmanship Guarantee. In addition to having quick production and the industry’s best customer service and art teams, we also guarantee the quality and craftsmanship of every coin order we produce.
We love custom challenge coins! In order to even better serve our customers, we have added a huge library of videos and support articles to help you get the answers and ideas you need to make your next custom challenge coin project a success.
A challenge coin is more than a simple keepsake, it represents the tradition, pride and values of your team and organization.
If you have questions about your next custom challenge coin design, you know where to go. When you are looking for the best custom challenge coin maker in the market, #ChooseSignature.
If you’re ready to make your own coin, contact us today and we’ll get started on your first free proof and quote immediately. Within as little as 48 hours, you could be well on your way to the simplest custom coin ordering process on the market. We have a challenge coin design template for anyone who wants to sketch out their ideas and take detailed notes on their artwork, but it’s not required. But if one of the more artistically inclined members of the team wants to sketch something out, it’s definitely a great tool.
Ready To Get Started?
When you are ready to proceed, use the convenient Order Form on our site to place your challenge coin order.
