Show me your coin?

[advanced]

Russ, you owe me a drink, you aint got a challenge coin!

I don't have one because I'm a poser. I was only in the boy scouts and they didn't give me a coin either.

[CrockettJW]

I don't go along with it, personally, but if a bunch of folks want to do it, fine, among themselves, not telling a stranger he or she has to now buy drinks because they could not produce a coin.
Otherwise I could tell them that whenever I see a stranger and talk to him or her, he or she has to give me a hundred bucks, now where is my challenge-hundred???

I completely agree with that. Walking up to a complete stranger and telling him he owes you a beer for something you've never heard of is not fair at all and I wouldn't do it.

I've seen units that had their own rules and customs, like those clubs that have a sign that says "He who enters covered here buys the bar a round of cheer." At least you get ample warning.

I had one time where I was told to do push-ups for stepping on the unit crest. I refused on the basis that it was on the floor, and just inside the main entrance, where it was difficult to not step on it.

[radio relay]

My understanding is that challenged coins were dreamed up during the first Gulf War ... This is the first time I've seen it attributed to WW1.

Like some of the other old salts here, I never heard of them when I was in.

First time I ever saw one was when I was at the Iwo Jima Memorial, on the Marine Corps Birthday, in 1999. General Jones, the Commandant at the time, shook our hands and gave a Commandant's challenge coin to a friend I was with, who had been severely disfigured from wounds suffered in Vietnam. It was really cool.

I had some made for 5th Comm Bn. I have one in my pocket. Not so much for the "challenge" part, but as a personal tribute to my old unit in Vietnam. I like giving them to people, too.

[Sgt Jim]

Just keep mine in a box and put away,my dog tags and John Wayne are aways with me.

[Zulu 36]

My understanding is that challenged coins were dreamed up during the first Gulf War ... This is the first time I've seen it attributed to WW1.

Like some of the other old salts here, I never heard of them when I was in.

First time I ever saw one was when I was at the Iwo Jima Memorial, on the Marine Corps Birthday, in 1999. General Jones, the Commandant at the time, shook our hands and gave a Commandant's challenge coin to a friend I was with, who had been severely disfigured from wounds suffered in Vietnam. It was really cool.

I had some made for 5th Comm Bn. I have one in my pocket. Not so much for the "challenge" part, but as a personal tribute to my old unit in Vietnam. I like giving them to people, too.

Challenge coins pre-date the Gulf War, as I have one from the 1st SOCOM at Ft Bragg that I received a year or so before Desert Storm. Good thing, because we were taken to the Green Beret Club later on and somebody put a coin check out, hoping to sucker a few drinks out of us, but lost. Challenge coins in SOCOM also had to have your initials engraved on the coin to count.

To my knowledge, at the time, coin checks could only be done in a bar and the coin had to be on your person. Also, to my knowledge, challenge coins were mostly used by special forces units. Perhaps they became more popular after the Gulf War.

[Deduke]

I have a Presidental Challange Coin from George W. Bush.........does that beat anything?

My CAP coin goes everywhere with me. The coin given to me by the Medal Of Honor Society (Col Wesley Fox) stays in my brag room.

[8532usmc]

Yes I ran into a marine that had a coin from the bataan death march. He won

[GT6238]

I had some Air Force guy challenge me...I told him I didn't know what he was talking about and that I didn't give a sh/t either...

[EchoFifeSerria]

I have only been challenged twice, and I am 1-1.

[3043pog]

Can't say that I remembered any coin thing,but I'd buy any Marine a round!

[FistFu68]

F**King A (lmfao) I'll drink too 'Dat

[EGA1957]

Seems I recall that a dollar bill was used in much the same way during WWII.

It would be signed by various individuals (generally at "high-level" meetings such as Yalta, etc.) and over the several years people had some unique signed bills that held some remarkable signatures.

[CrockettJW]

Seems I recall that a dollar bill was used in much the same way during WWII.

It would be signed by various individuals (generally at "high-level" meetings such as Yalta, etc.) and over the several years people had some unique signed bills that held some remarkable signatures.

That sounds like a "snorter." I never saw one myself, but I heard these were in use around the time when international travel by plane was still something special.

[wildwoman73]

We have even been given challenge coins at the police department. I have been challenged once. And I owe. I have my USMC coins but I think it would be more appropriate to challenge someone who was issued the same coin during whatever point in enlistment. I was never issued an official USMC coin. Just detatchments like in Korea. The SNCOIC of the section we were attached to gave each of us one. And of course I don't carry it. It is in a trunk with all of my safely kept bits and pieces of my life.

[03Mike]

I was issued my first challenge coin when I joined 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in 1991. The battalion coin (for 1/9 at least) is rumored to have started shortly after Operation Buffalo in 1967 -- don't know that for sure, but that's what the Battalion Sergeant Major and Battalion C.O. said.

Compared to the fancy coins that people pass out now, my old Walking Dead coin is pretty shabby - but you damn sure made sure you had it with you in the field (or anywhere else, for that matter). The battalion rule was that the only exclusion to carrying the coin was when you were in battalion PT gear (black & whites) - if you were in standard PT gear (green on green) then you were not excused.