Today almost all of the thousand or so challenge coin websites have the military challenge coins history posted for all to view. It’s on Wikipedia and even NBC used it for the challenge coin expose. The majority of people, researchers included absolutely love to run to a website and copy and paste the history like it is factual and of use to a collector or a group they are sharing it with. The downside is the unfounded story that keeps propagating through the internet at a rapid speed is that it makes those who really want information less informed and believing something that couldn’t be further from the facts.

It’s amazing how in this one case the internet has rewritten history. In one article it actually said challenge coins have been produced since WWI. This alone is amazing how a coin company really thinks some other company has been doing this since then, when there is no hard facts to back this up. The oldest known challenge coin, and even then it’s more of a token, is from the 1950’s. Some collector actually posted a picture of the coin and even then there is no way to prove someone didn’t cast it and bury it in the backyard to age it. The history of the challenge coin is already trivial enough, but do we as a community really need to make it even less accurate by making this stuff up?

Any challenge coin company or website that provides an account of the coin history is dead wrong on the basis that there is absolutely no proof of a downed pilot having one or that they were in use during WWI or WWII. The majority of websites that publish this is for “linkbait” and there is a minority of websites that really had no idea and are just following the crowd by having it. If you are a challenge coin company with the history of the this coin, you should remove it unless you have hard facts about history. Simply put there is no history of the challenge coin.

The challenge coin was developed in the commercial state it is now in the 80’s. We probably owe the majority of what we know about this coin from companies like Northwest Territorial Mint which has been in business from the start. You see today’s coins being produced for military units for about the last 20-30 years at best.

Only today we see high quality coins thanks to die-striking. When things first started it was only casting being used to make these coins which is a very low quality method. The hobby is in many cases honest, innocent, and boasting with pride. However, like anything in this world it has it’s commercialized value that so many have added. Some coins are minted purely for a buck and then sold on the back of incorrect history.

The worst thing you can do is be trapped by missing facts and go and brief the history when some of us actually know there is none. Do you want to look silly in front of a crowd by spouting this information? I would hope you wouldn’t. If any advice can be given, it’s that love the coins, ignore the propagandistic history and you will go far.

Author Bio: Jason Bacot – Are you looking for some help when it comes to finding the right company for your challenge coin or challenge coins, then look no further and check us out.

Category: Recreation
Keywords: challenge coins, military coins, challenge coin, military coin, air force coins, special forces