Air Force Birthday Ball Challenge Coins
Make the Evening More Memorable with USAF Birthday Ball Challenge Coins
Custom challenge coins often commemorate Air Force Birthday Balls, which are annual events providing an evening of festivity to celebrate the official formation of the U.S. Air Force on Sept. 9, 1947. During these events, Airmen across the U.S. trade their flight suits for mess dress and formal wear to celebrate the anniversary of the U.S. Air Force with their families.
Held at off-base venues, Air Force Birthday Balls provide a prime opportunity for wingmates, veterans, and squadronmates to catch up and pay their respects to one another. These events play host to local traditions and ceremonies distinct to each group of airmen. However, one tradition Air Force Birthday Balls all share is they are opportunities for airmen to, “challenge” old comrades to produce challenge coins for display from a unit or deployment. Failing to do so means the placing the burden of a round of drinks is on the negligent airman.
At Signature Coins, we are proud to know many of the custom challenge coins we design and produce are used by airmen all over to commemorate their experiences serving in the U.S. Air Force at Air Force Birthday Balls at home and abroad. We expertly design and craft each order of challenge coins with our client’s needs in mind. Our only hope is that their future owners remember to keep them handy when the time comes.
Commemorating Air Force Birthday Balls With Challenge Coins
Attendees of Air Force Birthday Balls often receive unique souvenirs such as commemorative glasses, wine, or custom challenge coins made especially for those occasions. Items like commemorative challenge coins remind recipients years later of past Air Force Birthday Balls and their rich traditions and ceremonies. Typically formal occasions, Air Force Balls provide a time for airmen to celebrate with their families and enjoy an evening of food and drink provided for by a local organization such as the local chapter of the Air Force Association or Tricentennial Military Committee.
Air Force Birthday Balls typically involve a cake cutting ceremony performed by both the highest ranking and lowest ranking servicemembers who are the first to cut into the birthday cake. For example, at the 70th Air Force Birthday Ball on Peterson Air Force Base held in honor of Air Force Space Command, both the Air Force Commander and a mere Airfield Operations Controller cut the cake together in honor of the Air Force’s birthday.
Air Force Squadrons and organizations all over the country celebrate these occasions for Active Duty Air Force, Air Force Reserves, and the Air National Guard, but the largest and most organized events tend to be those held in honor of servicemembers around active Air Force Bases such as:
- Homestead Air Force Reserve Base, FL, home of the 482nd Fighter Wing.
- MacDill Air Force Base, FL, home of the 6th Air Mobility Wing.
- Westover Air Force Reserve Base, NY, home of the 439th Airlift Wing and the nation’s largest Air Force Reserve Base.
- Mountain Home Air Force Base, ID, home of the 366th Fighter Wing Organization.
- Laughlin Air Force Base, TX, home of the 47th Mission Support Group
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Custom Air Force Challenge Coin Gallery
Signature Coins has been in the business of making challenge coins for more than 15 years. During this time we’ve served clients in every branch of the military and have dedicated our services to making high-quality products with quick turnover times. If you’re looking to create a new design or if you would prefer to recreate previous challenge coin design, our artists work with you individually to craft amazing coins you can be proud of.
Customizing and designing Air Force Birthday Ball Challenge Coins
Creating and ordering a set of custom Air Force Birthday Ball challenge coins is easy with Signature Coins.
Simply fill our order form with the details of your project and once we receive your information we immediately begin drafting an art proof (FREE of charge) based on your design or instructions. We’ll send the initial proof for free along with an initial quote for the whole order. We understand these challenge coins are entering the collections of their recipients as unique mementos representing the U.S. Air Force as a whole and treat each project with the utmost respect and care in our craft.
We won’t move forward to production until our clients give us final approval on a design. If you’re dissatisfied with any part of an initial design, we can revise it based directly on your feedback and send it back to you for free as often as you’d like.
We’ll help guide you through every step of the design process and offer expert advice on picking from our wide selection of customization options including:
- Size - The most common range of sizes is anywhere between 1” to 3”, but we can go as large as 9” if a client is really looking to supersize their challenge coins. We recommend ordering your challenge coins at least as large as 1.75” for the best balance between size and design detail.
- Shape - Challenge coins are traditionally coin shaped and circular, but that’s no hard limit on your imagination. If you want a coin shaped like an emblem, badge, mascot, or more we can work with you to create custom cut-to-shape coins in whatever shape you want.
- Color - We can easily fit up to seven colors on either side of a coin design using the full Pantone color spectrum to represent a unit’s flags or colors.
- Edge - We offer both free and premium coin edge options to really customize the texture and look of an individual coin.
- Plating - Choose to have your coin plated in gold, silver, copper, or dual plated to highlight important details.
- And many more!
We work individually with each of our clients to incorporate the precise designs or symbols they want in a coin. If a client doesn’t have a design on hand or isn’t sure where to start, then we work with the client to help build the perfect design ourselves using our full team of professional graphic designers and artists. Once final approval of a design is given, we can usually have an order produced and delivered to your event within 14 days or less!