The military challenge coin is a small metal disk awarded to military members as a token of appreciation or in commemoration of an achievement. Each military member must wear his or her military challenge coin on duty or in public. Some military members may also wear their military challenge coins at home or while off duty.
Army challenge coins are used as a signal to indicate a person’s position within the organization or hierarchy of the military. Military leaders and members may use the military challenge coin as a means of identifying each other during meetings and training.
A person may earn more medals for courageous action if he or Lodges a military challenge coin with the required inscriptions and symbols.
The design and wording of a military challenge coin typically reflect the objective of the military group that commissions it. Each of the five armed services – the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard – has its own unique design for its military challenge coin.
Navy Challenge Coins are for Navy units. Most of them are used to prove identity and celebrate friendship, and each navy coins tradition represents an experience. And in the army, if you have achieved outstanding achievements or other special reasons, you will be awarded coins to show recognition.
A core phrase or inscription is repeated on each side of the military challenge coin’s body to emphasize the importance of the phrase or inscription to each particular service. For example, ‘HABEAS CUSTODIA’ (translation: ‘Take Care!’) is repeated on both sides of the US Army’s silver dollar coin for medical personnel.
The name and objectives of each mission that a military group undertakes are typically inscribed on the obverse side of the military challenge coin. On the obreshold side, an armed forces astutely displays its charged heraldic shield.
The design for each armed forces’ military challenge coin represents an actual event from history that embodies each service’s mission objectives. For example, on one side of the US Army’s silver dollar coin for medical personnel, an army surgeon operating on soldiers’ wounds bears down upon a bloody surgical instrument.
An army nurse stands ready to deliver treatment using an instrument bag emblazoned with two crossed swords. On the reverse side, a surgeon examines soldiers’ wounds with both clinical detachment and tenderness.
This side also bears an army treatment facility’s hospital sign indicating that ‘HOSPITALITY IS OUR BUSINESS.’ Emblems associated with medical care (symbols such as scissors, stethoscope, medicine vials and two doctors’ hats) allude to this theme. Emblems representative of transportation (a car, truck and airplane) allude to how medical personnel often move patients from place to place in emergencies.
Emblems representative of communications (a radiophone, telegraph and semaphore flag) allude to how medical personnel relay important treatment information between different medical facilities.
Each day brings new challenges for today’s active-duty military members- whether it be protecting America or carrying out missions abroad. To acknowledge their accomplishments, every current and former member of the US Armed Forces carries a small metal disk on which their name is inscribed.
The name of each current or former member appears on one side of the obverse side of each coin- while images from his particular field represent his side on the reverse side. Emblems representing various facets of how current and former members fulfill their duties in today’s armed forces appear throughout each serviceman’s daily life.
