Best regards,
Thanks for the info. I only recently heard of these things. I occasionally post strips from "Air Force Blues" over in the Canteen thread, and they have a memorial challenge coin available over there, too.
(funny thing is that I just stumbled across that strip -- it's not like anyone in my family was in the Air Force)
While I like the idea of a commemorative coin, I dislike the modernist look. There are several concepts that might be blended to produce a series of truly unique coins that have a deeper meaning.
To start with, the Canadian gold Maple Leaf is distinguished as a coin, because it is engraved with a 3D hologram. As such, it should remain encased, lest the 3D effect is ruined.
But I can see such 3D engraving on silver coins as being very stylish. Especially if they were the size of Eisenhower dollars.
On the obverse, instead of national symbols, I can imagine a series of the great American Admirals and Generals. Perhaps 100 different coins, including:
MacArthur, Sherman, John Paul Jones, Patton, Nimitz, Zumwalt, Nathanael Greene, James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee, Winfield Scott Hancock, Stonewall Jackson, George C Marshall, Omar Bradley, Norman Schwarzkopf, John J.”Black Jack” Pershing, William Halsey, David Farragut, Raymund Spruance, Oliver Hazard Perry, Charles A. Lockwood, Chesty Puller, Daniel V. Gallery, Marc Mitscher, Jimmy Doolittle, Billy Mitchell, Commodore Stephen Decatur Jr, Matthew Ridgway, William Westmoreland, Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, Creighton Abrams, Joseph Stilwell, Philip Sheridan, James H. Wilson, George H. Thomas, the US Presidents who were generals, etc.
While there are those who would want individual coins, a complete collection, briefly annotated, would be worth a fortune for its historical value alone. It would be the ultimate military gift and would fill up a wall.
The reverse side could have a brief annotation in small print.