The story of the DLX challenge coin
EUGENE / JUNE 10, 2020 – “Don’t give him your coin, he already has a million!” shouted my coworker from across the build site. I’d handed someone my DLX challenge coin to pose with in front of a freshly built field hospital, but I had no intention of letting him keep it. After all, that weighty two-inch medallion confirmed my membership to The Team Behind Your Team.
COIN CHECK!
Stories with coins as characters appear throughout history, dating back to ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. The first coins appeared in roughly 600 BC. They would join shells and other precious materials as a measure of value: introducing the way we monetize in the modern day. Anecdotes from ancient Rome tell tales of of triumphant soldiers receiving a specialized “bonus” coin after returning from battle. Some soldiers would collect their coins as mementos, signifying the birth of the challenge coin concept.
Although the true origin of challenge coins as we understand them today isn’t totally clear, medallions became a mainstream military insignia after the first World War. Initially, the coins were a commendation from a captain to his men and often featured his unit’s emblem. Later, the same coins would be used to prove a soldiers’ identity in prisoner-of-war scenarios. During WWII the “challenge” aspect of the coin is said to have been introduced – essentially as a drinking game. American soldiers stationed in Germany would conduct “coin checks.” One soldier would start the challenge by slapping down his coin to the bar top. Whoever was the last to present their coin earned the responsibility of buying the first round of drinks for his unit. This tradition has withstood the test of time and remains an important characteristic of challenge coin culture.
Challenge coins continued to gain notoriety in the 21st century as U.S. Presidents and high-ranking military officials began to disperse the coins to not just military personnel, but to anyone whom they wanted to establish comradery. This subtle shift points to how an exclusive military medallion could climb the ranks to become a widespread symbol of solidarity.
MAKING IT OUR OWN
At DLX we pride ourselves on being an extension of the teams that are in the field making a difference. Designing our own challenge coin as a nod to the first responders we work with seemed like a no-brainer, and within months of launching the first product line in 2013 we also released the premier DLX challenge coin. DLX President JJ Urhausen explained: “We always knew from the beginning that we wanted a challenge coin, and we wanted it to be unique. We came up with the teardrop because it met with the globe and the arrow in our logo.” The distinctive teardrop shape sets it apart from a typical circular medallion, and each of the 300 coins printed were numbered to add another element of exclusivity. A Mexican designer was deliberately chosen for the first coin – indicative of DLX’s global reach. Over the years we’ve released four more coins, each evolving as the company has. The 2015 edition included a bottle opener to pay homage to the tradition of the challenge coin, while our 2017 coin got yet another upgrade: a 3D representation of a DLX shelter used by Red Deer Emergency Management and the Canadian International Rescue Organization.
The trend of using real shelter images on the coin returned for 2019’s fourth edition featuring the newly debuted ASAP-HUB. It also incorporated our current tagline: Rapid Deployment Redefined. The fifth and most recent coin (2020) continues the lineage of the third and fourth coins – now displaying a full X-Series shelter complex. This boss of a challenge coin is a full two inches in diameter compared to the 1.75 inches of its predecessors. The increased size evokes that, “DLX is here to stay,” while the imagery reveals our arrival into the large-scale deployment industry. Good Things Come to Those Who Hustle is inscribed around the circumference of the medallion to reflect the fast-paced nature of first response and the value we place on hard work.
From their early employment in military recognition, to a more universal representation of allegiance today: challenge coins have become a culture entirely of their own. At the end of the day DLX challenge coins are a handy way to recognize the people who give our shelters a purpose. If you receive one of our coins, it’s safe to say that you’re making the world a better place.
