Challenge Coins: From Medieval Coats of Arms to Modern Souvenirs

Today challenge coins are widely used everywhere – they are a good promotional attribute, a distinctive mark for employees of a respected company, a memorial that tells about significant moments of life and much more. But how have they entered our life? I’ll bet that not many people have thought about the origin of such a small but important accessory, though it has a rather interesting and deep history.

It is believed that challenge coins have come to us from the distant Middle Ages. Of course, some of their similarities existed even before, but challenge coins have gottheir development and widespread just in that time, which is called dark ages. Let me tell you about the details of challenge coins history.

The history of this subject begins with heraldry. It, as we know, deals with the definition of what and how can be depicted on an emblem, what symbols and signs can be used in this case, and what they mean. The roots of this discipline are related to the fact that in those severe times it was required to obtain information about a person, not even seeing his face. The arms, containing tribal and national icons,served good for this purpose.

The main feature of European medieval heraldry is the fact that the icons have had different shapes, which showed sex of its wearer. In those days, men wore their own coats of arms - an insignia on a shield, and single women, divorced or widowed ones - on the so-called "pills", which were diamond-shaped. Women's coats of arms were usually represented by round or disk-shaped icons in many ways similar to "coins" of English nobility, which had appeared at about the same time as the coat of arms, but then were not recognized.

People, who bear the same name, had different icons; however, one person could at the same time use different ones. As regards to the colour priority, heraldry has a relatively small number of species: there are two colours of metal - gold and silver, and when colouring the coins, yellow and gold were very often used interchangeably. The same situation occurred with silver and white. In addition, the icons were mainly of five colours: red, blue, black, green and purple. And also, there were three mixed colours, such as orange, purple-red and bloody. In heraldic art coins were supposed to decorate with the most expressive and pure colours with a minimum of artistic license in order to avoid mistakes in recognition.It should be added that there is a rule, which says that in order to increase the visibility of the icons, peopleshould not overlay metal on a metal and paint on paint.

In heraldry of European countries, the emblem icons could depict geometric patterns or animals, birds, people, plants, mythical animals and much more. Also, it is worth noting that the icons on the arms - it's not just a figure, taken from the head, but a symbol that tells the name of the carrier, his great deeds and events of life. For example, the British coat of arms is very informative in this respect, since it has a large number of icons. It is the well-known alliance of the Lion and the Unicorn - symbols of England and Scotland, and the flowers on a meadow,which are not identical - they depict thesigns of countries. However, the heraldic emblem icons preserved their very simple parts, which include the design, shape and colour. Noble and royal men often wore a hat or a crown, which was located above the shield, and, of course, contained a kind of signsof the state. But the arms of the Middle Ages were often divided into separate parts, which corresponded to the icons of families before and after the wedding. Therefore, in the end, the arms began to look very variegated and ugly.

European heraldry and, accordingly, a variety of icons, were distributed with the invention of metal armour. Since helmets hid the whole head and face, a warrior was completely unrecognizable in the battle. Therefore, the Knights, to be able to distinguish a friend from a foe, began to use special symbols - signs that decorated clothing, horses, shields, banners, and other prominent places.

Since all of these icons were designed for instant recognition, they were naturally quite simple, with clear colours and wonderful contrast. It is this reason, for which the rule of paints and metals on the icons, discussed above, has appeared. But, of course, heraldry was used not only for military action, otherwise it wouldn’t have lived up to the present days, because there was some other reason due to which the icons were so popular –it was the desire to stand out. Notable men, such as knights, nobles, kings, had their special coats of arms, and their personal coins, which related to themselves and represented their glory. When the challenge coins, thus, became a status symbol, they have become an important attribute, and handed down as a symbol of the entire family line.

That's the story how such interesting attributes as challenge coins appeared and flourished. As we see, the icons have not passed through this long journey completely, because they are still popular today. This means that the icons can be attributed to the category of timeless values, because at all times, people wanted to not only stand out, but also leave memory.That is why now in museums around the world we can find generic icons and challenge coins, about the meaning of which the signs that appear on them can tell us.

Now, challenge coins have a new application in the form of an honorary sign. However, to date, there is a great variety of challenge coins - the military, corporate, advertising, and children ones.

We can make out every of the species in detail. For example, military coinsare handed for the military services to brave soldiers and commanders.Corporate coins can accommodate your company logo and be a present for the workers. Corporate coins are also the company's image and style. Every self-respecting company has its original corporate challenge coins that are advantageous to emphasize the individuality of the company.

Advertising challenge coins are probably the most popular ones. They are used to attract customers' attention to the products. These coins can be distributedat various promotions and events, as well as handed to buyers when purchasing the goods. Advertising coins are usually made to be interesting, vivid and impressive,so a man would liketo watch them.

Children's challenge coins are very nice and funny. Often it is the coin with the animals - kittens, chicks, puppies, as well as cartoon and children's showscharacters.

Therefore, you see that the challenge coins were not only an integral attribute of medieval knights, but are also a popular accessory in our days.