When Good Coins Go Bad: Avoiding Challenge Coin Mistakes

Challenge coin designs carry deep meaning. They’re used to celebrate milestones, commemorate significant events, and memorialize fallen comrades. The symbolism in both image and text is a key to their popularity.

Custom coins are positive keepsakes 99% of the time. However, occasionally a bad or offensive design, a misspelled text or incorrect colors slip through the system, leading to confusion, anger, disappointment or lost goodwill.

Preventing Problems Starts Before You Order

Preventing such mishaps is easy. Proper oversight of the ordering process, clear policy and careful proofreading before approving production can prevent a lot of grief and controversy.

Let’s take a look at some examples of coins gone bad, and some ways they could have been prevented.

Dallas Design Disaster

In 2022, a Dallas Police officer designed a coin for the department’s South-Central Division. The design featured a cartoon character holding a black rifle in one hand, cash in the other. The figure had gold teeth and stood in front of a purple car with oversized rims.

The image originally appeared on the Dallas Police Association’s members-only social media site. When Black officers complained the image was racist, it was removed from the site, and the association declared it “in very poor taste.” The officer responsible later received a five-day suspension.

The coin revealed a larger cultural issue within the department. No coins were actually produced, but 38 members of the department, including leadership, tried to buy it before it was deleted from the site.

Lesson Learned

To prevent such designs from surfacing, an organization needs tight control and a review process for any coin that will bear the department name or logo. While you can’t control what people do with their own money, you can restrict use of anything that identifies the department, and set disciplinary policy for any violations.

Maryland Mess

The Maryland State Police investigated a coin in in 2022 that depicted women’s anatomy in an offensive manner and included derogatory text toward women as well. The design bore the official emblem of the MSP.

It wasn’t the first time for such an incident, either. The previous year, two other separate coin designs considered racist resulted in disciplinary action against three MSP troopers. The combined incidents led to public condemnation and a statewide investigation of the agency.

Lesson Learned

Once again, the coin designs revealed a larger cultural rift within the agency. Leadership needed to take responsibility to address those issues and strictly enforce limits on the use of the official agency emblem on coins.

More Common Mistakes

Examples like the incidents above, while indicating serious problems with challenge coin designs and distribution, are uncommon. There are far more common issues related to the proofing and ordering process that are directly within your control. Let’s see what you can do to prevent those problems.

Failure to Proof Your Design

Your coin provider will send you a digital proof before beginning production of your design. It is critical that you review every aspect of your design. That includes the spelling of every word, the accuracy of every number, the appropriateness of every design element.

Once you approve that proof, any typos or other mistakes are your problem, not the provider’s. Once the coin is made, no correction is possible. That can lead to disappointment, especially with memorial, deployment or retirement coins.

Failure to Check Your Colors

Another common problem is the failure to check the color(s) of your design. Remember, digital proofs look different on every monitor. What looks like a proper red on your monitor might look orange on your provider’s monitor, and vice versa.

The only way to ensure an exact color match is to verify the Pantone® PMS color – identified by a specific number on your proof – against a physical Pantone chart. If you don’t do that, you might find that you receive coins that look nothing like what you expected. Pantone charts can be found at art supply stores and some public libraries.

Not Ordering In Time

It’s important to remember production and shipping times in relation to when you need your coins. From ordering to delivery typically takes about three to four weeks, but can take longer due to weather events, shipping delays and other factors. Be sure to give your coin provider enough time to get your order to you in time for your event. Coins that arrive after the ceremony they’re meant for can be especially upsetting to recipients.

Avoiding Coin Catastrophes

There’s no secret to preventing all of the above coin problems. It all comes down to attention to detail.

If you want to be sure your coins are appropriate for your organization, look exactly the way you want, and arrive on time, follow these simple steps:

Before You Approve the Proof:

Review – Be sure any design that bears the name or logo of your organization meets your standards for acceptable images and words.

Proofread – Double-check every word, every name, every date. Be certain everything is spelled correctly. Make sure every number or date is correct and in the right place.

Verify – Check your design color(s) against a Pantone PMS chart. It’s the only way to positively confirm your colors are correct.

Review Again – If possible, have more than one person review the design before you sign off on it. Fresh eyes can spot mistakes you might have overlooked.

Ordering:

Allow enough time for your coins to be produced and shipped before your event arrives. Ask your coin provider how much lead time they need to get your coins to you in a timely fashion.

Your Provider is a Partner

At ChallengeCoins4Less.com, we’re your partners in creating your coins. We’ll work with you every step of the way to ensure your coins are exactly what you want, and that they are correct.

Keep in mind that you’re an equally important part of the partnership. Be sure every aspect of your design is correct before you approve the digital proof.

We’re here to serve all your custom coin needs. Working together, we’ll create the best challenge coins you can find anywhere, at an outstanding price, and with our signature customer service. Let us know when you’re ready to order custom coins. Call us at (855) 272-8451, or email us today.