Challenge Coins

Current Challenge Coin Tradition

This tradition spread all branches of service and even to nonmilitary organizations. Today, challenge coins are given to members upon joining an organization, as an award to improve morale, and are sold to commemorate special occasions or as fundraisers. In 2008, Leatherneck Magazine gave a 90th anniversary Leatherneck challenge coin to a select few readers who sent in letters to their Sound Off section which the editors particularly liked. In the Air Force, an Airman's coin is awarded to new enlisted personnel upon completion of their United States Air Force Basic Military Training and to new officers upon completion of their Air Force Officer Training School.

President Bill Clinton displayed several racks of challenge coins, which had been given to him by U.S. service members, on the credenza behind his Oval Office desk. These coins are currently on display at the Clinton Library. The challenge coins appear in the background of his official portrait, now hanging in the White House. President George W. Bush received a challenge coin from a Marine combat patrol unit during his visit to Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar province, Iraq, September 3, 2007. President Barack Obama placed challenge coins on the memorials of the soldiers slain in the Fort Hood shooting.