An agency that supports every service has to represent all of them on one coin. The cleanest solution is to give the organization’s own identity one face and the services it supplies the other, rather than trying to fit everything onto a single side.
What Is the Defense Logistics Agency?
The Defense Logistics Agency manages supply and spare parts for the Department of Defense. It is a combat support agency rather than part of any one service, and it provides the material that keeps the military’s equipment running.
DLA Aviation is the part of the agency responsible for aviation, acting as the aviation demand and supply manager for DLA and for much of the Department.
Agencies That Serve Every Service
DLA belongs to a tier of organizations that the coin market largely ignores, because they do not fit the usual categories. They are not Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps. They support all of them.
That tier includes the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Contract Management Agency, the Defense Health Agency, United States Transportation Command and the other combatant and joint commands.
Two things follow that matter for a coin.
Their people come from everywhere. A defence agency is staffed by personnel from every service plus a large civilian workforce, often sitting side by side in the same office. A coin built around one service’s imagery quietly excludes most of the room, and a coin built around no service at all feels like it belongs to a corporation rather than to the military.
Their identity is the mission, not the branch. These organizations are defined by what they do rather than by whose uniform they wear, which is why their coins tend to lead with the agency logo rather than with any martial imagery.
For adjacent audiences, see our pages on program office and acquisition coins and coins for the civilian workforce.
Fitting Every Service Crest on One Coin
This is the specific design problem, and anyone at a joint agency or command will face it with nowhere to look it up.
Equal weight is not equal size. The service crests are not comparable objects. Some are circular seals, some are eagles, some are dense with text and some are almost graphic. Scaling them all to the same width does not make them look equal, because a busy seal at that size reads as a grey smudge while a bold eagle at the same width dominates the face. Balancing them means adjusting each one individually until they carry the same visual weight, which usually results in them being different sizes.
Order matters and people notice. Services have a conventional order of precedence, and on a coin that means placing them in a recognized sequence rather than an arbitrary one. The Department of Defense order runs Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard. Confirm the order your organization uses before the artwork is finalized, because this is the detail your own people will check first.
Detail suffers at that scale. Five or six crests on one face means each one occupies a small fraction of it. Every crest has to be simplified to survive, and the simplification has to be done without making any of them wrong, which is the same problem described on our heraldry page and harder here because it has to be solved six times over on one surface.
The agency still has to lead. The coin belongs to the organization, not to the services it supports. If the service crests are the first thing seen, the coin has given its own identity away.
Which is why the split works. One face for the organization, one face for everyone it serves. The agency logo gets a whole side with room to be seen properly, the crests get a whole side to be arranged on, and neither is competing with the other for the same space. It is the most direct answer to the problem and it is usually the right one.
Why a Black Field Works for a Busy Reverse
A dark base does something specific on a face carrying several emblems: it separates them from one another without requiring borders, dividers or panels between them.
On a light or metal-coloured field, several crests tend to run together visually, and the usual fix is to draw lines between them or seat each one in its own compartment. Both add clutter. A black field does the separating on its own, because every emblem is bounded by dark space and reads as a distinct object.
It also flatters metal. Raised and plated elements sitting on black have maximum contrast against the background, which is why so many multi-element coins end up on a dark base. See more on plating and finish options.
About This DLA Aviation Coin
This coin was made for DLA Aviation, the aviation arm of the Defense Logistics Agency.
The base is black across the whole coin. The front carries the agency logo. The reverse carries the crests of the armed forces, and a moose is sculpted into the design.
The layout is the textbook answer to the multi-service problem described above: the organization takes one face outright, the services it supports take the other, and the black field holds the crests apart without any dividing lines being drawn between them.
Note for whoever loads this page: the crests on the reverse should be counted off the photograph and named correctly, including the Coast Guard and Space Force if they appear. The current copy names only four and calls the Marine Corps “US Marine”.
Can We Use Service Seals on a Coin?
Service seals and Department of Defense emblems are controlled marks, and the position differs depending on who is asking.
For a government organization, use within the department still goes through your own approval process. Being inside the system does not remove the requirement, it changes who you ask. Clear the artwork through your agency’s public affairs or general counsel, and use approved renderings rather than images sourced from the internet.
For a commercial organization, the question is a different and stricter one, covered on our page about service seals on a commercial coin.
In both cases our position is the same. We produce from artwork the customer is authorized to supply, and the authorization is the customer’s to obtain. We are a manufacturer rather than an authority on emblem use, and we do not grant permission on anyone’s behalf.
Design a Coin for Your Agency
Embleholics is registered in SAM.gov and holds SDVOSB status, and can work with purchase orders and established payment terms where an organization’s purchasing requirements call for them.
Professional artwork is free with unlimited revisions, and nothing goes into production until you approve a digital proof. If your design needs several service crests balanced on one face, say so at the start, because that is the part that takes the artwork time. The minimum order is 50 coins, 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. See more custom government challenge coins or request a free quote.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Defense Logistics Agency?
The Defense Logistics Agency manages supply and spare parts for the Department of Defense. It is a combat support agency rather than part of any single service, and DLA Aviation is the component responsible for aviation supply.
Can all the armed forces crests fit on one coin?
Yes, and it is a common requirement for joint agencies and commands. The usual approach is to give the crests a whole face of their own and the organization’s own logo the other, rather than trying to fit everything onto a single side.
What order should service crests be placed in?
Use a recognized order of precedence rather than an arbitrary arrangement. The Department of Defense order runs Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard. Confirm the order your own organization uses before artwork is finalized, since this is what recipients check first.
How small can a service crest be and still read?
It depends on the crest, because they differ enormously in density. A dense seal with text needs considerably more space than a bold graphic emblem. Each crest is simplified individually so they carry equal visual weight, which usually means they end up at different sizes rather than matching widths.
Can a government agency use Department of Defense seals on a coin?
Government organizations still follow their own approval process for service seals and department emblems. Clear the artwork through your agency’s public affairs or general counsel and use approved renderings. Commercial use of the same marks is a separate and stricter question.
Why do some coins use a black base?
A black field separates several emblems from one another without needing borders or dividers, which keeps a busy face from looking like a collage. It also gives raised and plated elements maximum contrast, which is why multi-element designs frequently sit on a dark base.
Can a defence agency buy challenge coins directly?
Yes. Embleholics is registered in SAM.gov and holds SDVOSB status, and can accommodate purchase orders and established payment terms where an organization’s procurement requirements call for them. Raise your requirements when you request a quote.
What is the minimum order for agency coins?
The minimum order for custom challenge coins is 50 coins. That suits a directorate, office or team within an agency rather than a whole organization, and larger quantities reduce the cost per coin.
More Navy Projects
