At Signature Coins, our job is to help every client bring their ideas to life. We make unique artwork and designs every day, but this submarine stands out among the rest. It’s made out of 18 separate coins, each one representing a different component of the United States Navy’s submarine forces. The front side of every coin depicts a logo of an individual component of the Navy’s submarine forces, and the flip side has that logo’s corresponding name printed in gold.
The customer came to us with a clear idea of what he was looking for and asked if it was something we could make for him. Naturally, we said yes! However, there were a number of things we needed to address before jumping into the project head first. Our art team crafts bottle opener coins, shield and star coins and custom shape coins taking the form of anything our customers think of, but this was something different. We needed to find a way to make the design quickly to meet his deadline, without sacrificing quality.
Making the Design
Avoiding mistakes on a project like this takes careful planning and clear communication. Our sales team did a fantastic job keeping everything organized for our art and production teams by maintaining a steady line of communication with the client.
Instead of creating 18 coin designs from scratch, we started with just one piece of the puzzle.
We included a few different versions of the first piece, comparing and contrasting colors and setups. Staring this way completed our first order of business, namely, establishing the black base and high polished gold edging that would remain consistent across all pieces of the submarine.
Once that was decided, it was much easier to create the other 17 pieces, rather than making all 18 pieces several times with different colors and edges over and over until the design was right. We try to make sure every order is as easy as possible for our customers, and taking simple steps like this saves a lot of time and energy without sacrificing the quality of the design.
Creating the sequence turned out to be simple as well. We spoke with the client to get their opinion on what insignia would go on the conning tower, the tail, the nose and so on. We went through a few different sequences and the final order was established without delay thanks to the prompt response times of our sales and art teams.
The Puzzling Aspects of Making Puzzle Pieces
This was not our first set of puzzle piece challenge coins, but it was certainly the most extensive. Our production team uses a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program to create unique molds for our original artwork. These custom coin molds fashioned by the CAD machines are exceptionally accurate and consistent, however, there was some trouble getting the submarine coins to link together properly.
Our production team worked their magic, examining the mold structures and reworking the individual coins. They found that the process of stamping each puzzle piece created slight variations in the edging of every coin. They described it as a rounding effect that was almost impossible to see, but it was enough to keep the pieces from locking together. They made slight adjustments to each coin mold and tested them for consistency. Once they were sure each coin was perfect, they started full production.
Credit for the amazing artwork we create goes to our art team, but the standard of high quality we have earned over the years comes directly from our production team and their ability to overcome roadblocks like this and meet their deadlines.
The Last Steps
Normally, our customers order one type of coin at a time. Even when two or three designs are ordered together, the coins can be packaged on their own. The submarine coins were a little different. The client let us know that the coins would be handed out as a complete set so we needed to package them a little differently. We spoke with our production team and had them package the coins in 18 piece sets before shipping. It was a small step, but we wanted to make sure our client did not have to go through thousands of coins and organize the submarine coins by hand.
This project took careful planning to get right, but we had a great time making everything work. Our number one priority was making sure that the submarine met our standard in quality and thoughtful design. Being open and honest with our clients helps every project run smooth, especially with complex orders like this!
What kind of crazy ideas for challenge coins do you have? Let us know! We are always excited to help our clients make their visions come to life!
