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The Highest Quality Coins for the Highest Quality Special Agents
The coins pictured here were created for the FBI’s New York office and given to members of their 2018 internship program. We are honored knowing that these are the first challenge coins earned by a few future members of the FBI, and hope that they will always be cherished as a symbol of their personal achievements and their bright futures.
Custom coins like these are collected after crucial points in a special agent’s career like promotions, successful missions, celebrations and even for small steps like completing an internship program. When all is said and done, a personal collection is a narrative of your service in the Bureau. Each one tells a special story and has value so much more than just the precious metal plating the coin. They are earned through struggle and conflict, but also through excellence. They symbolize your right to be a member of the FBI and your ability to serve our nation with distinction.
We understand the importance of creating meaningful, high-quality designs that do justice in representing the Bureau and the men and women who serve the United States, and it shows in our work. We take pride in every project and work carefully with each client to ensure each coin comes out perfectly suited for their needs. If you are looking for a set of custom coins for your team, you have come to the right place.
Creating Custom Coins With Authentic FBI Designs
Our design team can recreate the FBI seal with complete accuracy. As you can see, we are careful not to miss a single piece of the familiar seal and even use the standard 281C Pantone blue paint to ensure every coin matches the Bureau’s established image down to the smallest decimal.
All three coins pictured above are plated with high polish gold. The addition of the blue colorfill in each seal adds a pleasant contrast to the raised metal lettering and ensures each word is highly legible. Besides for the entire Pantone color wheel and a variety of metal plating choices, we offer customizable options like edging, sequential numbering, 3D and 2D design and so much more. You can choose to make traditional designs that incorporate the Bureau’s seal, or you can change up the formula and make something a little more unique like this coin we created for a Special Agent Bomb Technician in Miami.
This design keeps the famous FBI blue and gold colors but takes a more personal approach to the artwork. While no bomb technician ever wants to see an explosion like this in real life, you can’t deny that the nuclear trefoil set against a massive mushroom cloud definitely captures the idea of their profession. Whatever you’re looking for in custom design, our team is sure to bring your inspirations to life and add a little personality to your coins. Just send us your ideas, and we will be happy to get started.
Adding Personality to Your Custom Designs
According to the FBI, the agency employs over 35,000 people in a variety of different roles operating all over the country. With this large scale comes an equal number of unique opportunities to create meaningful and personal designs that capture the spirit of a team. You can design something for an internship program like the New York office has done in the past, for a team of seasoned special agents, or for any of the roles in between.
To see how different a pair of FBI challenge coins can be, all you need to do is take a look at a few examples. These coins were created for teams in Memphis Tennessee and New Jersey. Not only is the artwork different, but the colors, sizes and shapes are different. The license plate design uses an intricate 3D mold to recreate the badges and New Jersey outline on the back whereas the Memphis coin only uses a 2D design. Be that as it may, both coins have a distinct personality, and show how much is possible in design with just a little imagination.
No two coins are the same, and the process of creating an original design is simple and fun. As long as you know something about your team, you have enough information to make something special. The FBI is broken up into branches like National Security, Intelligence, Science and Technology and even Human Resources. Each branch and each team has their own history, and coins are minted to reflect their character and heritage.
Even simple design cues like inspirational quotes or mission statements can make a difference in how a coin makes people feel. This coin, for example, has a famous Theodore Roosevelt quote as well as a passage from Proverbs. The raised lettering on the back is set against a textured gold plating which helps make the text more legible against the bright metal and also adds a unique feel to the back of the coin. While the seal on the front side is smooth to the touch, the flip side has a more grainy, textured feel.
These were given out to remind people of their responsibilities to our nation and the importance of their work. The FBI is full of men and women who never back down and stop at nothing to make sure the job gets done right. When designs are made with a specific team in mind, they become a small piece of shared identity. Unique designs like these are only made possible by including some personal touches that define the team members all throughout the Bureau.
Trust Our Team to Get It Done Right
Since the year 2000, we have been refining our methods and perfecting our abilities. We have a written quality guarantee that ensures every client receives the highest standard challenge coins on every order, and our experienced art team has all of the tools necessary to bring your ideas to life. Custom coins are meant to make a difference in someone’s life. They are a physical piece of an identity shared among team members and symbol of personal achievement. If you need a personal and meaningful gift for your team, you have come to the right place. Get started today and see what kind of unique designs we can create for you!
Just send us some ideas on what type of design you would like, as well as a little insight as to what makes your team unique, by filling out our free quote form. Once that’s done, we will deliver your first free proof of artwork in 24 to 48 hours. After that, we encourage our customers to make as many free revisions as you need to make sure the artwork is perfect! Whatever kind of design you are looking for, you can trust our team to get the job done right.
FBI Coin Customizations
When agencies come to Signature Coins for their challenge coin customizations, they can expect to get their challenge coins created in three easy steps:
- First, send us your ideas through an online form submission anywhere on our website, or by giving us a call. We will then contact you and send you a free proof between 24 and 48 hours, along with a free price quote.
- Second, review your challenge coin for any possible spelling errors, or other modifications you would like to add and get free unlimited revisions during this phase.
- Third, when your coin passes your approval, submit an online order form, and we’ll start the custom coin creation and shipping phase. You can expect to have your challenge coins in hand within 14 days or less.
As an optional follow-up — we’d appreciate it if you reviewed our work on Google and Facebook. We take great pride in our artwork and designs and hope our customers do too. Show off a picture of your challenge coins on social media and review us to show your appreciation.
At Signature Coins, we provide the easiest, friendliest way to create high-quality challenge coins online — period. With more than two decades of experience helping law enforcement agencies, military units, schools, and corporate organizations create custom challenge coins, we’ve learned the likes and dislikes of each type of customer. With that experience, we’re able to create the perfect challenge coins for every customer — ones they can take pride in.
From Your Vision to a Finished Masterpiece
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Common Challenge Coin Questions
A challenge coin is usually a metal coin or medallion, bearing an organization's insignia, emblem or logo and carried by the organization's members. Traditionally, challenge coins were used by the military and displayed by service men and women to prove exclusive membership when challenged, and to enhance the military units' morale.
Historically, challenge coins were awarded by military unit commanders in recognition of special achievement made by a member of the unit. They are also known to be exchanged and traded during recognition visits to different international organizations, bases and service tours. These coins have been heavily collected by active and retired service members and law enforcement personnel for years.
Modern challenge coins are made in a variety of sizes and often include popular culture references such as superheroes as well as known characters in a parody. Many companies today are using them to build morale in teams, link people with similar interests and even to promote their brand. Challenge coin designs today are pushing the boundary of what a challenge coin could mean or be used for. One thing is for sure, personalized coins further strengthen the sense of bond within people that both give and receive them.
Challenge coins are often used as a physical token or symbol to represent membership to an organization, unit, or team.
Challenge coins also serve as a lasting personal award for anyone that has received one. Since they are custom and long lasting, challenge coins serve well to commemorate the time and experience put in to overcome overwhelming obstacles or the extraordinary effort and sacrifice needed to reach a given achievement. These keepsake coins become a life long reminder of the achievements made.
Our bravest first responder services also have a history of using challenge coins. Whether for fire departments, emergency medical technicians or law enforcement officers, challenge coins have been used to award bravery, acts of heroism and department camaraderie.
Many companies today have been started by veterans, or are veteran owned and are beginning to use the challenge coin tradition to help represent accomplishments in their businesses. This modern approach to awarding challenge coins has garnered some criticism from the traditionalists. Signature Coins has been making challenge coins for 20 plus years, and we see more and more companies joining in on awarding custom challenge coins to customers, staff, and volunteers. They are using them to build morale in teams, link people with similar interests and even to promote their brand or charities.
Generally speaking you give someone a challenge coin when you want to honor them for a good deed or for their hard work.
Challenge coins still play a major role in the military today, much like a "Thank you Plus" or "Great Job Plus". In the armed forces not every action rates an honorable medal or certificate, for those moments when someone is deserving of more than a thank you, awarding them with a challenge coin fills the gap.
As a very simple miltary example. You're out on a 3 day field op. One of your guys or gals busts their butt during a particularly stressful couple hours of it. Shows great attitude, effort, and was overal top notch. If you tried to write it up, it wouldn't "quite" be "award worthy" but definitely deserved "recognition."
Now even if you're not a veteran or a member of the armed forces, you can still recognize and award someone with custom challenge coins.
You can use challenge coins to reward employees after the completion of a special project or if huge accomplishments have been made company wide. The coin design can be representative of the achievement, the employee or the company goals. Studies show when employees are recognized for a job well done, they feel more satisfied with their job performance, are more likely to reach for higher goals, and are more loyal to their organizations.
Finding the right time and place to give someone a challenge coin can be, well, a bit challenging.
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Military tradition has a few ways of approaching this honor. One being "The Secret Handshake" where commanding officers, department officials or the president himself would shake a soldiers hand and "slip" them the coin via the handshake. Transferring the coin shouldn't be dramatic or obvious, like a quiet wink and a nod, this honor is more personal to the people giving and receieving the award and less ceremonial. Although a bit more obvious, another military tradition is to hand them out in front of a formation or during a meeting, but it's more commonly done one on one.
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As more civilians and businesses use challenge coins, they have taken a more ceremonious and inclusive approach to awarding them. When looking to give a challenge coin to an employee or team member most businesses will do it during a team meeting. Some businesses have even integrated their employee award recognition into their annual and quarterly ceremonies. Awarding their employees in front of others can be a great way to show the rest of the team that you too can be "recognized" if the effort is there.
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Modern marketers are also finding that custom challenge coins make for great business cards, so many high end service providers, such as lawyers, accountants and commercial developers are now giving their custom coins out as a means of promoting themselves or their business offerings.
Challenge coins typically cost $3.00 -$5.00 per coin for a full production run of 100 coins generally speaking.
More specifically though, it depends. Challenge coin pricing is dependent on a variety of factors including size, quantity, and coloration. Your organization's insignia or logo, as well as the brand standards surrounding it, will often dictate coloration. The level of complexity, industry standards, and personal preference will dictate the size of the coin.
You can view our challenge coin pricing here.
Designing challenge coins is a lot of fun, but there's also a ton of things to think about before getting started. Luckily, we have years of experience making custom coins, and we're happy to help you every step of the way.
We have put together a how-to guide that will tell you everything you need to know about challenge coin design.
Challenge Coin Design 101: A How-To Guide For Creating Challenge Coins