A human resources challenge coin recognizes the people who manage careers rather than the people whose careers are being managed. This one was made for a personnel element of the Army’s Human Resources Command, and it solves the design problem that comes with the job.
A Coin for Work With No Object
Personnel work produces no equipment, no vehicle and no scene. What it produces is other people’s careers, which is not something you can put on a coin.
That is the same problem faced by intelligence, communications and cyber organizations, and the answer is the same: allegory. When the work cannot be depicted, the coin carries devices that stand for what the work means instead.
This one does it with a tower beside a sea, with the sun and the moon in the distance, framed by banners and lettering. Those are not decorative choices. A tower conventionally signifies watchfulness and permanence. Sun and moon together signify continuity, work that carries on through day and night. For an organization that tracks a soldier from basic training through to retirement, continuity and watchfulness are precisely the right ideas.
What a buyer in this position should take from it:
Describe the meaning, not the activity. If your work is administrative, telling an artist what it feels like to do it well produces a better coin than telling them what the process involves.
Use devices with established meaning. A tower, a key, a compass, a lamp and an anchor all carry centuries of accumulated significance. An invented symbol has to be explained, and a coin that needs explaining has failed.
Keep the count low. This coin has four devices and a frame, which is already a full face. Five would be a collage.
What the Human Resources Command Does
The Army’s Human Resources Command handles career management for soldiers across the Regular Army and the Army Reserve, from entry through to retirement. It is based at Fort Knox, Kentucky, with operational elements across the country, and it serves as the Army’s functional authority on military personnel management.
It also supports the National Guard and Reserve leadership in managing the Selected Reserve, and its commander has responsibility for the Individual Ready Reserve, the Standby Reserve and the Retired Reserve.
That scope is the reason the coin looks the way it does. An organization responsible for every soldier’s record at every stage of a career is dealing in continuity rather than events, and continuity is an idea rather than an image. The allegory is not decoration covering an absence of subject matter; it is the only accurate way to show what the organization actually does.
Banners and Rim Lettering
The devices on this coin are framed by banners and lettering, which is a traditional arrangement and a practical one.
A banner, or scroll, gives you somewhere to put words inside the composition rather than fighting it. Text set on a banner reads as part of the design; the same text floating in open field reads as a label applied afterward. For an organization with a long formal name, that distinction matters, because the designation has to appear somewhere and the face is already occupied.
Rim lettering does the complementary job. It carries the full official title around the outside, leaving the center clear for the devices. The limit is character count: there is a finite amount of text that fits around a rim before it drops below readable size, and long official titles are usually what has to be shortened. That is a decision worth making at artwork rather than at proof. Our page on lettering and finish options covers the detail.
Coins for HR and Personnel Teams
This is not only a military situation. Corporate human resources teams have exactly the same recognition problem and almost never order coins, which is a gap rather than a reason.
An HR function handles hiring, development, retention and the end of people’s employment. Its successes are other people’s careers and its best work is frequently invisible, because a well-run organization feels like nothing in particular is happening. There is rarely any object attached to that.
The occasions are there: service anniversaries, completing a development program, a major restructure delivered well, or a team that carried an organization through something difficult. A coin suits all of them, and the allegorical approach that works for a military personnel command works just as well for a corporate one.
Order a Coin for Your Team
Professional artwork is free with unlimited revisions, and nothing goes into production until you approve a digital proof. The challenge coin minimum is 50 pieces, standard production runs about 45 to 50 days after final artwork approval, rush production is available on many projects, and shipping within the continental United States is included. Embleholics is veteran-owned, SDVOSB and registered in SAM.gov. Personnel commands face the same problem; see our 271st HRC Challenge Coin.
Two things to tell us if your work is administrative. Describe what the job means rather than what the process involves, because our artists can build from the first and not the second. And send your full official title early, since fitting a long designation around a rim is the constraint that usually shapes the layout. See more Army challenge coins.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a human resources challenge coin?
It is a coin made for a personnel or HR organization, recognizing the people who manage careers rather than those whose careers are managed. Military personnel commands order them regularly, and corporate HR functions face the same recognition problem with far fewer coins to show for it.
How do you design a coin for administrative work?
Through allegory rather than depiction. Administrative work produces no object to show, so the coin carries devices that stand for what the work means: a tower for watchfulness, a lamp for guidance, sun and moon for continuity. Describe the meaning to the artist rather than the process.
What do a tower, sun and moon mean on a coin?
A tower conventionally signifies watchfulness and permanence. The sun and moon together signify continuity, work that carries on through day and night. For an organization responsible for soldiers’ records across an entire career, both ideas are literally accurate rather than merely decorative.
How many symbols should go on one face?
Three or four is a full face. Each device added reduces the size of all the others and asks the viewer to do more interpretive work. A coin with five or six allegorical devices stops reading as a design and starts reading as a collage.
What is a banner or scroll on a challenge coin?
It is a ribbon device carrying text as part of the composition rather than floating in open field. Words set on a banner read as belonging to the design; the same words placed loose on the face read as a label added afterward. It is the traditional solution to putting a name on a busy coin.
How much text fits around the rim of a coin?
Less than most official titles require. There is a finite character count before the lettering drops below readable size, and the usual casualty is the full designation. Deciding what to shorten belongs at the artwork stage rather than at the proof, when the layout is already set.
What does the Army Human Resources Command do?
It manages soldiers’ careers across the Regular Army and Army Reserve, from entry through to retirement, and serves as the Army’s functional authority on military personnel management. It is based at Fort Knox with operational elements across the country.
Do corporate HR teams order challenge coins?
Rarely, and the gap is not for want of occasions. Service anniversaries, completing a development program, a restructure handled well, or a team that carried the organization through a difficult period all suit a coin, and the allegorical approach that works for a military personnel command works for a corporate one too.
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