Front Face, Back Face Considerations
Your custom coin has two faces: an obverse and a reverse face (front and back respectively). With our custom true edge engraving option, the true edge of your coin can sometimes be seen as a third face. For some customers, this multitude of different options is fun and exciting. But for others, two faces might be one too many.
Most of the orders we get in make full use of the two sides of their coins to include two different, but related, designs on each. But there are other orders that leave one side of their coin face blank, or use the same image on both sides of their coin, and others take the front and back consideration of their coins literally and make the back face of their coin a continuation of the image on the front. Ultimately, there’s no wrong answer to the question of how you want to customize your coin. Here are some examples of coins that make special considerations for the two sides.
One Side Blank
When you’re given the opportunity to put whatever you want on two sides of a coin, it can seem counterproductive not to make use of this option to its fullest extent. However, there are some deeper considerations, and certain practical concerns, that can lead to one side of the coin being left blank.
The 9” coin we made for the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity is one that’s gotten a lot of attention, but that’s mostly because of its impressive size. With so many images floating around of the coin’s front face, no one really pays attention to the fact that the back face is blank.
The decision to not include any artwork on the back of the coin was made because of the coin’s ultimate purpose. Unlike other coins, this one isn’t meant to be carried around or displayed in a velvet case; this challenge coin is going to be sealed into a table for the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity Headquarters. Once placed in its permanent home, the coin will spend the rest of its life sitting face up. Therefore, the back face doesn’t matter.
How you intend your challenge coins to be displayed will go a long way towards determining a lot of different aspects of their design. Christmas ornament coins, for example, can’t be too heavy and need to have their weight distributed evenly to avoid constant spinning on the tree.
In addition to hanging from a tree and being sealed into a desk, some challenge coins become magnets to be displayed on a refrigerator. This bottle opener challenge coin was intended for such a purpose.
Continuing the Design From Side to Side
One of the more fun design options some of our customers utilize is to take the design and the artwork from the front of the coin and continue it around to the back. In certain cases, like this bottle opener coin for the Air Force, the results can be striking and powerful.
On other coins, the effect can be rather comical. The little devil on this coin is continued through to the reverse face, and even the words are reversed to give the true feeling of a heads and tails.
Doubling Down
When you don’t want to leave a side blank, but you also don’t want to design the back of your coin as the reverse of the front image, another option is to keep the design of both sides exactly the same with small variations.
When the design you’ve chosen is striking on its own, sometimes you want to show it off to its best. This motorcycle club coin is a perfect case of that.
The cutouts on this coin create the internal shape, and that shape is so specific that it would be difficult to have a different design on both faces of the coin. But the stark colors and their combination with the copper plating create an effect that deserves to be repeated twice. Only the words around the outside of the ring of the coin are different on each side.
This 501st coin cleverly differentiates the front from the back with the use of color on the obverse and just the plating on the reverse. The effect is such that you almost forget that it’s the same design on both sides, and it really shows the unique difference between a coin with colorfill and a coin with just plating.
Let’s Face It
As a custom coin company, our main goal is always to bring your vision to life and create coins you can be proud of. Whether that means two completely different coin faces, one blank coin face, two coin faces that are the same with only small variations, a true recreation of the front and back of an image, or anything else you can come up with, we’re here and ready to meet and even exceed your unique vision.
We always look forward to seeing what interesting art ideas our customers have for their coins; when those ideas include something fun and interesting that goes against the norm for challenge coins, we’re that much more excited to see the final product. Never be concerned that your ideas for your custom coin are out of the ordinary or go against the grain. If you can imagine it, chances are we can find a way to bring it to life.
