Custom Souvenir Coins

Internationally, one of the very first types of souvenirs collected by travelers were foreign currencies and coinage as they were easy to keep but unique to each specific country. A practice that is widespread throughout the United States and worldwide is the commission and sale of unique commemorative coins representing a state, business, organization, or even a local historical event. Meant to remind their owners of their experiences, souvenir coins are one of the most common items used as meaningful takeaways from a person’s travels.

One of the popular uses of custom souvenir challenge coins is to commission them as unique commemorative items for an event, business, or famous location. As souvenirs, challenge coins are unique gifts marking a visit to a famous location or as a keepsake of a major event. These items can become very popular with travelers and collectors, marking the sites they’ve visited and commemorating major events they may have witnessed. As memorabilia, souvenir challenge coins can be commissioned in small orders, perhaps to only the first 1,000 visitors of a location or only sold to attendees at certain events. Limited-runs make specific souvenir challenge coins highly demanded items and even draws a collector’s interest to attend events partially out of an interest in collecting a unique souvenir challenge coin. Often, major businesses and organizations will also commission unique challenge coins representing their place of business or operations.

At Signature Coins, we’ve designed and produced high-quality wholesale challenge coins for national organizations, Fortune 500 corporations, and the military. While some detractors may derail poor-quality souvenir coins as “vendor trash,” our products are far from it.  Well-crafted souvenir challenge coins with unique designs are coveted as special memorabilia by collectors for their signature aesthetic. Some souvenir coins carry very limited runs of their unique designs and become difficult or impossible to find, especially if they were minted as a souvenir for a specific event. With 20 years of experience, we are a leading producer of custom challenge coins with unique one of a kind designs. Trust our expert staff and experienced team of designers to create a souvenir coin that will be valued for years.

Finding Unique Challenge Coins as Souvenirs

Souvenir coins are a common item, commissioned and designed by corporations, national organizations, and even both law enforcement and military organizations. Often, souvenir challenge coins aren’t distributed like traditional challenge coins, which are given in recognition of service or membership. They are instead bought and collected by travelers or visitors as a means of commemorating their visit and experiences. Commonly, souvenir coins can be found in locations with gift shops often with a design carrying an image relevant to their locale. From National Parks, museums, and police stations, souvenir coins are created to be sold to visitors as small mementos marking their time and experiences there.  Most theme parks and tourist locations, for example, usually have coin press machines that use extreme pressure to reshape coins and redesign them as souvenirs coins. 

Souvenir coins are ubiquitous to nearly every location or city that can expect to find travelers or tourists. Locations where you might find some of the best-designed and well-crafted souvenir coins include:

Military Bases - Many military bases include residential gift shops where one of a kind challenge coins are commissioned and sold to visitors as souvenirs. These challenge coins often include the markings and references to military units stationed at that base and some corporations including game companies like Bungie or food companies like Coca-Cola Company even commission unique challenge coins that are given out along with their products sold at military bases.

Tourist Monuments - A broad term, but most anywhere liable to attract a large volume of visitors or tourists is likely to also sell unique souvenir coins with designs invoking that location. Examples of major tourist locations that offer unique souvenir coins include the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., and Yellowstone National Park. Some of these locations offer unique challenge coins that can be found released and sold nowhere else.

Corporate Headquarters and Museums - Many of the country’s largest corporations including the Coca-Cola Company, McDonald’s, and Ford Motor Company have become intrinsic names in U.S. culture. With long histories, these corporations commission unique souvenir coins at their gift shops and museums found nowhere else that brand their identity and commemorate a visit to their offices.

Designing Souvenir Challenge Coins

To make a souvenir challenge coin unique and special, a custom design that captures the character and locale of a place is paramount. At Signature Coins, our services are tailor-made to ensure that every client who comes to us for a challenge coin, leaves with a unique design distinct from any other and made according to the soul and personality of their needs. 

To help create mementos that will be valued, our company offers a host of customization option with each order of veteran challenge coins including free and premium options for modifying the size, shape, color, edging, plating, and more. Our expert representatives have a wealth of experience designing coins for the military and we treat each order with the same dedication our veterans have shown us.

Our services allow you to completely modify a coin’s:

• Size - The most common sizes are between 1” to 3”, but we’ve made coins as large as 9”.
• Shape - Challenge coins are traditionally shaped like circular coins, but we can create coins in every shape imaginable including weapons, badges, emblems, or mascots.
• Color - Choose to leave the coin in its natural metallic color or have it painted with up to seven colors on either side chosen from the full Pantone color spectrum.
• Coin Edge - There are six different options to decorate the edge every coin, providing a unique look and feel to each order.
• Plating - Plate your coin in antique gold, silver, or copper. Double plate a coin to create and highlight key details.
• 3D Coins - Allow specific details or elements of a design to literally pop or stand out of a coin’s surface by ordering a 3D coin.
• Offset Print - Offset printing creates an exact replica of an image or photograph on the surface.
• Silk Screen - Create a perfectly smooth coin surface by silk screening your design’s colors onto the coin.
• Epoxy Dome - Create a glassy and smooth finish over one or both sides of a coin with an epoxy dome.

Whether you know from the start what design and symbols you want to incorporate or need assistance in finding the right look, our dedicated team of professional graphic artists works with you at every step.