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If you are in the military, you can use challenge coins to get yourself free drinks. The idea is that when everyone is at a bar, the guy or gal with the challen
by GlenTheMachine 7y ago
If you are in the military, you can use challenge coins to get yourself free drinks. The idea is that when everyone is at a bar, the guy or gal with the challenge coin from the highest ranking officer never has to pay for rounds of drinks.
I've never seen a civilian use one. We don't spend much time in bars, and the feeling I get is that if I did try to whip one out in the presence of uniformed personnel -- a challenge that I would almost certainly win, given who this coin was from -- that would be a tremendous faux pas.
So at best, this is the sort of object that carries some real meaning in a very particular social context among a very particular set of people, but that meaning doesn't carry over to anywhere else. Like baseball or Pokemon cards, I suppose. How would you feel about your boss switching out Christmas bonuses for packs of World of Warcraft cards?
- defen 7y agoHow long are challenge coins "valid"? If someone had a challenge coin from Eisenhower (not sure those exist, let's pretend they do) would that person essentially always win, forever?
- GlenTheMachine 7y agoI honestly don’t know. The guy whose coin I have is now retired.
- WorldMaker 7y agoFrom my weird lay understanding, it's somewhat similar to childhood games where people would try to determine who had the "coolest" Pogs [1]. There are multiple "axes" that determines which challenge coin "wins": highest rank associated, most interesting challenge involved (some coins represent specific deployments or activities or actions), perceived rarity (there only three of the coins ever made), etc. To some extent the challenge coins serve what medals/badges always have: an excuse to tell a cool story, maybe brag about something. Similarly the "free alcohol" rules follow the same general principles of "that's a really cool story, I owe you a beer for it", just reduced to simple evocative coin form. Which "axes" are in play, and who "wins" (or ties, a lot of the rule variations I've heard are set up to optimize towards ties; the most common challenge is just whether or not the other person has a challenge coin of any sort, not necessarily trying to figure out which wins if both people have coins on them) varies a lot between groups. Also, challenge coins have seeped into some parts of lay culture, especially bar culture (given that alcohol has always been the big bet, it shouldn't be a surprise). For instance, the liqueur Fernet has its own challenge coins that bartenders tend to challenge each other for free shots of Fernet. (Bars try to keep one in reach of the bar at all times in case the bar is challenged, and the number of people that have them that have them that aren't themselves bartenders is supposedly kept quite rare.) https://talesofthecocktail.com/history/part-family-behind-scenes-fernet-branca-challenge-coins https://talesofthecocktail.com/history/part-family-behind-sc... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_caps_(game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_caps_(game)
- defen 7y agoInteresting, I love Fernet. Now I just have to figure out how to get a coin...
- 0az 7y agoI'm inclined to believe that it's the story and tradition, less the coin itself. Incidentally, Howard Tayler's Unofficial Anecdotal History of Challenge Coins is excellent. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/assets/img/uploads/UAHCC/UAHCC-v0.99.pdf https://www.schlockmercenary.com/assets/img/uploads/UAHCC/UA...