• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Pitch and Rudder

Challenge Coin Design and Manufacturing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Services
    • Custom Military Belt Buckles
    • Custom Challenge Coins
  • News
  • Product Gallery
    • Navy Chief Coins
  • Shop
  • 🛒 Cart
  • Go Custom
You are here: Home / News

News

How expensive are Quality Custom Challenge coins? Tips on Keeping your Project under budget in 2019

November 25, 2018 By PNR 3 Comments

Quality Custom Challenge Coins should be your #1 target!

Let me say that again, Quality should be your 1st target, your order should never compromise on the standard of the Custom Challenge Coin. Period

If you’re on a restricted budget or simply trying to keep the price down on your challenge coins, don’t sweat it. we’ve a couple of helpful tips that may save you cash and acquire you the high-quality coins you would like.  Take a look at this article on designing awesome Challenge coins. 

Getting the foremost bang for your buck starts with the unit price. Unit price is the cost of every individual coin in a full order. how much every coin costs depends on a variety of various factors like color, size, edging, planting, sn and myriad alternative customizable options. The more complicated a coin is, the costlier it’ll be.

The best ways that to keep the unit price down, and acquire the foremost coins for your cash, is to concentrate on size, colors, and quantity.

Custom Challenge Coins, Chief Mess Coins, Pitch and Rudder Custom Challenge coins , CPO Challenge Coins, quality challenge coin, quality custom challenge coin

Size of Quality Custom Challenge Coins

Bigger coins can cost more cash. They need larger molds and a lot of material so that they are going to be inherently costlier. If you’re trying to induce the foremost coins for your money, smaller sized coins can forever be the way to go. Take this for an example:

Let say you were trying to order five hundred challenge coins with color on each side. Sizes vary from 1.5” all the way up to as massive as you’ll be able to imagine, and you opt that 3.5” is ideal. The unit worth for a 3.5” coin with color on each side is $7.29, thus five hundred coins can start up to a complete of $3645

Bear with me now, we all know it’s loads of numbers. By obtaining 2.5” coins in place of the 3.5” coins, you may save over $800 on this order. Those varieties of savings will help meet any reasonable budget! however, let’s take the instance simply a touch more. Let’s say your take into account this five hundred coin project is $4,000. you have got plenty to cover the value of the 3.5” coins. Now, the dimensions of your coins play a role in what proportion you’re obtaining for your cash.

For the selected $3,645, you’ll be able to have your five hundred coins at 3.5”. however, if you opt to take an inch off your coins and acquire a 2.5” style instead, you’ll be able to order 1,000 coins for simply a meagerly $405 more. meaning doubling the number of coins you receive for simply just a bit more money.  Regardless of how you spin it, deciding what size coin to induce is wherever you’ll be able to realize ways that to satisfy any budget and acquire the foremost for your cash.

custom CPO challenge Coin // Custom Chief Mess Coins by Pitch adn Rudder

The Quantity of Quality Custom Challenge Coins

Alight, buckle up as a result of there are some a lot of numbers during this section. But first, let’s bring up coin molds. coming up with a custom coin may be a heap of fun. You get to throw your concepts around and see however they flesh out. You get to travel through revisions creating design good. And after you finally get to carry the primary coin, you recognize it’s a real original. However, a custom coin desires a custom mold. mold fees cover testing the setup of the coin and therefore the development of a unique mold. It will cost anyplace between $50 and $250 reckoning on the dimensions of the coins and whether or not or not they’re one-sided or two-sided in style. this is often wherever amount comes into play.  For orders of five hundred coins or a lot of, we tend to eliminate mold fees! this suggests that each one of your cash goes towards coins, and not towards set up! additionally, the unit worth of challenge coins drops exponentially with the rise of order amount, therefore a lot of you order the less you’re paying for every coin.

Custom Challenge Coins, Chief Mess Coins, Pitch and Rudder Custom Challenge coins , CPO Challenge Coins, quality challenge coin, quality custom challenge coin

Color of Quality Custom Challenge Coins

Color is an alternative choice that contains a vital impact on the unit price of coins. It takes additional time to line up a mold that has clearly outlined breaks for color patterns, making certain that no colors bleed together. The paint itself adds up, too. If you scrutinize one coin, it doesn’t appear as if it takes that a lot of paint, however, keep in mind, multiply the paint from one coin by three hundred or five hundred or however massive the order is. That’s loads of paint.

So, selecting to avoid color fills can prevent cash. How much, you ask? Well, let’s recall at the instance from above: you are obtaining five hundred coins with color on each side for a complete of $2,645. By eliminating the color fills and obtaining bare-metal coins, you may save nearly $700! You save $1.35 on each coin. during this example, eliminating color fills saves simply over 25th on the full order.

Custom Navy Chief Challenge coin manufactured by Pitch and Rudder
Custom Navy Chief Challenge coin manufactured by Pitch and Rudder
Custom Navy Chief Challenge coin manufactured by Pitch and Rudder
Custom Navy Chief Challenge coin manufactured by Pitch and Rudder

So before you Order your Challenge Coins:

When you begin the ordering method by requesting a design, take an instant to speak with a member of our sales team. provide them with your budget and that they can realize the simplest choices to satisfy your desires. obtaining smaller coins will save loads of cash on the lowest line, however, perhaps you actually want a 2.5” coin and can’t fathom the way to create that fits your budget.

Our sales team is friendly and jam-packed with expertise. they’re going to do everything in their power to help produce a coin that suits your desires (both in style and budget). inspect size comparisons and custom choices on our evaluation page, and acquire an improved plan of what we are able to produce for you. Our expertise has taught us that there’s some flexibility that permits our customers to avoid wasting cash while not sacrificing high-quality style.  Just remember, Size, Qty, and Colors and let us get to creating you an Awesome Quality Custom Challenge Coin!

quality challenge coin, custom challenge coin, challenge coin cost
custom challenge coins trump space force space force challenge coins

quality challenge coin, custom challenge coin, challenge coin cost

Pitch and Rudder Services

Making custom quality challenge coins and Military belt buckles are one of our specialties. If your interested in getting a  Custom buckle or Quality Challenge coin for your Division, Command, or Mess we’ve streamlined the process, click the get started link at the bottom of the page and someone from our design team will be with you within 48 hours to bring your vision to life.

Filed Under: Better Challenge Coins Tagged With: challenge coin, challenge coin design, Custom Challenge Coins, quality challenge coins

2D Challenge Coins vs 3D Challenge Coins

November 25, 2018 By PNR Leave a Comment

Custom Challenge Coins Whats the real Difference?

Customers typically ask us what the difference is between 2d challenge coins and 3D challenge coins. we tend to understand this could be a bit confusing. Die struck custom challenge coins of each sort have raised and recessed areas. The distinction is that 2d challenge coins primarily have 2 levels of metal. The 3D challenge coins have a vast variety of levels. meaning we will spherical edges and make smooth gradations between the raised and recessed areas. within the photo higher than, all text and brand work on the right challenge coin is on an identical plane. The bottom coin (3D challenge coins option), has multiple planes and creates what we tend to check with as a 3D challenge coin mold. The 3D challenge coins Concept works nicely for buildings, statues, pictures of individuals, and alternative objects that are 3D in the world — that is to mention everything in real life!

2D Challenge Coins, Custom 2d Challenge Coins, Harry potter Challenge Coins, Custom Challenge Coins 2D Challenge Coins, Custom 2d Challenge Coins, Harry potter Challenge Coins, Custom Challenge Coins

So it might appear that 3D challenge coins would be the way to go, right? Not always. one of the reasons for a project to use to a second style would be for color. due to the method by that, we tend to produce the 3D challenge coins mold, it’s usually unfeasible for us to paint or fill any a part of the 3D image. The 3D  portion of the challenge coins will have to stay within the finished metal kind of your selecting. we will simply add color to a second style, and that we offer to 7 colors free. We can, however, produce 3D pictures that have color fill around them on alternative elements of the coin’s surface. we love the creativeness and individuation that 3D challenge coins give, and love making an enduring product that shows your message and imagination in an exceedingly quality custom coin. we tend to manufacture each second and 3D challenge coins you’ll be proud to hold, distribute and show. allow us to apprehend if you have got any queries the least bit concerning the 3D method and what we will do for you!

Pitch and Rudder Challenge Coin, custom challenge coins, challenge coins, 3d challenge coins, 3d coins, Chief Coins, CPO coins, Navy Chief CoinsPitch and Rudder Challenge Coin, custom challenge coins, challenge coins, 3d challenge coins, 3d coins, Chief Coins, CPO coins, Navy Chief Coins

Pitch and Rudder Services

If your interested in Rocking a One of a Kind Design, built from a Veteran Owned and Operated team we’ve have made it easier than ever to #gocustom with us!  Click the Link, fill out the form and let’s Get started rocking something custom for you that sets you apart from the crowd.  Take a look at our Services and let’s match a designer to your needs and knock your project out of the park!

Filed Under: Better Challenge Coins Tagged With: challenge coin design, Challenge Coins, Custom Challenge Coins

Part II Getting to know your Pitch and Rudder Team

November 6, 2018 By PNR 1 Comment

(Former Owner)  A little about our Founder and Principle Owner here at Pitch and Rudder LLC

Pitch and Rudder was established off of a simple want, the Maynard family had just came off of an arduous sea tour and wanted to reconnect and spend some time together as a family at the greatest place on earth!  Disney!!  So for a year before we actually established the LLC, Terry designed and manufactured  one custom military challenge coin a month through the different coin pages to take his Family to Orlando once a month.  These were simple designs and nothing crazy, then in June of 16 a few commands reached out and asked if Terry could design and make their Chief Mess Season challenge coins and the rest is history.

AECS(AW) Terry Maynard, (Ret)

AECS Maynard was born in Fresno, CA in November of 1979. He enlisted in the Navy in July of 1997 and completed boot camp at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes.  He then reported to Aviation Electricians ‘A’ School in Pensacola Fl.  In May of 98 he reported to Patrol Squadron TWO SIX in Brunswick, ME.  After three deployments with the Tridents and advancing to AE3, Senior Chief transferred to the Pioneers of VX-1 in Patuxent River MD.  It was during this tour that he met the love of his life Ashley and they were Married at Solomon’s Island, advanced to AE2 and ran the night shift electrical shop.  An old Crusty AE1 took him under his wing and gave him a bit of rudder, “I’m glad you can fix planes….. but when are you going to learn how to lead?”  Senior took the message to heart.   After Completing his rewarding first shore tour, he transferred to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol squadron FOUR.  This tour, is when he realized that we wanted to be Chief Petty Officer.  Completing two deployments with Skinny Dragons, one to 5th fleet and one to 7th fleet he Selected as VP-4s Junior Sailor of the Year and Advanced to AE1.  Even with the career millstones that were being accomplished while being stationed in Hawaii, the highlight of that tour was the birth of their first son Garrett.  After a very rewarding tour he transferred once again to Patuxent River, MD this time to Force Warfare, VX-20.  Once onboard, he was tagged to run QA as the Division LPO and that first year aboard he was selected as Senior Sailor of the Year, and again designated SFF, this time on all 22 platforms and in 2010 he was floored to be selected as A Chief Petty officer.  The Maynard Family grew as well!  Their Second and third Sons were born, Kellan and Landon.  When they entered the state as a family of three, three years earlier, now on their transition to VQ-3 they now were a family of Five!  Joining the Ironman Family of VQ-3, was an eye-opening experience, while apart of this command, Senior ran Night Check Maintenance and was the Aircraft Division LCPO.  It was during this tour that Emmalyn was born their one and only Princess!  Once his tour was completed his family now six strong moved to the land of storms and sunshine in Jacksonville, FL to be a part of Patrol Squadron THIRTY!

While attached to the PROs NEST Senior made some lifelong friends, Founded Pitch and Rudder LLC, advanced to Senior Chief and spent 83 days at Disney!  While assigned to VP-30 he was the Maintenance Supervisor, Line Division LCPO and Maintenance Training LCPO.  From VP-30, the move was a long and arduous one to hangar 511 and the Red Lancers of Patrol Squadron TEN where he finished out his career as the AV/ARM Division LCPO.  AECS Maynard (Ret) has received Two Navy Commendation Medals, Seven Navy Achievement Medals, Six Good Conduct Medals, National Defense Service Medals, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, two Iraqi Campaign Medals, Military Outstanding Service Medal, two Humanitarian service medals, and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medals as well as numerous command achievements and awards.

Now that we know who he is and a little about his history, lets address what he does here at Pitch and Rudder.  (Update:  As of end of 2021 Terry sold all his ownership in P&R to Jason Eland.)

Principle Owner

This is a broad title that pretty much encompasses the lion king metaphor, everything the sun touches is his.  Daily he works with our fulfillment team in Jacksonville to make sure that our orders are getting out as required.  Coordinates the inventory allocations and manages our social media platforms.   When a new product is placed on the site, hes made all the changes to the back end system of the website to ensure that it runs smoothly, uploads the product, writes the SEO content and publishes the final product.  If he’s not on the computer working on a system, he’s on a zoom call working a collaboration or a business venture.   Advertising and Marketing, all of our plans have been developed through him.  Our new Chatbot, Pitch?  Yep, Terry built it from the ground up.  Do you enjoy our emails?  He builds those well.  He is always looking for new ways to make Pitch and Rudder more effective and easier for the customer to find and utilize.

Custom Navy Uniform Belt Belt Buckle // Custom belt buckle // Custom Pitch and Rudder Belt Buckle // military belt buckle // Pitch and Rudder belt buckle //

Pitch and Rudder Challenge Coin // Challenge Coins // Custom Challenge coins // Navy Chief Challenge Coins

Custom Navy Chief Challenge coin manufactured by Pitch and Rudder

Custom Military Challenge Coin Designer

When Terry isn’t working on the metrics of the business, he’s in the trenches designing some really badass Custom military challenge coins!  All of Pitch and Rudders Custom designed Military Challenge Coins are finalized and approved by Terry before leaving the company and going to the customer.  This helps keep all of Pitch and Rudders military Challenge Coins looking the same even though the were designed by a team of five.  Some of the coolest military challenge coins that he has designed are located here in our Gallery of Coins; however, here are some of his favorites!  Terry focuses on the emotional connection someone should have when they are palmed one of your military challenge coins.  The design has to be on point and if you can convey a connection with a coin; than, to the company it’s a slam dunk!  We do a lot of military challenge coins, custom buckles and kick ass lapel pins each week and month; its the pride in the design and commitment to our values that sets us apart from the flock.

Coined

It’s that emotional connection that Terry wants to foster that got him to establish the Facebook group Coined.  It’s not about trading or selling Military Challenge coins, its about the stories behind the coin that make so awesome.  You can Check out the facebook group, add your favorite coin picture and talk to a ton of like minded individuals!  Look for a new PODcast to be started in the coming weeks where we can highlight more of the personal stories behind the military challenge coin…. in Coined!

https://www.facebook.com/PitchandRudder/videos/1216999288474250/

A Deeper Look

For a deeper look at Terry,  Pitch and Rudders, Founder check out the following PODcast that he has been interviewed on:

#GOCUSTOM

If your interested in Rocking a One of a Kind Design, built from a Veteran founded team we’ve have made it easier than ever to #gocustom with us!  Click the Link, fill out the form and let’s Get started rocking something custom for you that sets you apart from the crowd.  Take a look at our Services and lets match a designer to your needs and knock your project out of the park!

Filed Under: Our Team Tagged With: challenge coin design, family

Military Influencers Conference 2018

October 1, 2018 By PNR Leave a Comment

VETERAN BUSINESS OWNERS AND THEIR CHALLENGE COINS

Designing Challenge Coins is always a pleasure; however, when you get to develop something for your own community, a group of kickass veteran business owners it opens up so much more joy!   To say that we were excited when Justin Szerletich of Szerds, reached out to Pitch and Rudder, to design the challenge coin is an understatement!  We knew that this coin would be handed out to every veteran and spouse attending the convention and we wanted to make sure that it left a lasting impression.   Making a Custom Challenge coins for Veteran Business Owners spanning all the different branches of service, it was important that we made it either very general or included all the different branches of service.  Like with most designs and contracts that we work, we did both.

GETTING THE RIGHT FLOW

As we began the process of brainstorming, really hammering out what would be cost effective for the client and still make an immediate impact in the swag bags we came up a very clever idea that we had done in the past.  QRC technology is not new by any means, but its normally found on coins.  We recently had completed a coin for a Chiefs mess SRT-2 in which we had utilized a QRC code to link back from their coin to a secret Facebook group.  The Coin was a huge hit, so on the table, we put Linking Conference Influencers presentations to the coins by a laser QRC.  The initial design looked like this:

 

Now, this was with keeping all the branches of service on the coin.  The square in the middle would have been raised up and held the QRC code for the presentations.   As we continued to progress on the design we moved away from the QRC code but kept at this time the branches of service.  Our second rendering looked like this:

We started working on a revolver feel on the back of the coin, we removed the flag background and put it into on the chambers and added the branched around.  We removed the QRC code and inserted our logo, as a guide rod holder.  At this point, we were contemplating, should we make the backspin like a regular revolver.  We thought it would be a very cool feature of the coin, basically, you never know which chamber you’re going to get when you start messing with a bunch of kickass veteran business owners!  We moved away from this design because we were asked to incorporate the sponsors of the event into the back of the coin and in a revolver setting we would not be able to do each one justice.

FINAL DESIGN

Once we went back to the drawing board for the third time developing the final product wasn’t that hard.  We set out all the sponsors vectored logos on a sheet and arranged them as a team.  Looking at the logos how they fit together like a puzzle and using the branding manual, the final design kind of developed itself.  Now came the coloring aspect.  We wanted to make sure that everything was as seamless as possible, we offered 18 color combinations for the final product.  To include these:

Once, we had all the images build up and the designs settled on; we created 3 samples in silver.  White, Black, and Navy Blue.

Conference Leadership decided to go with the white coins and we pushed headstrong into production.  Giving us our final product as:

 

Collaboration with other Veteran Business Owners are awesome, they help everyone build better networking infostructures and communities.   We really enjoyed working with Justin at Szerds and are looking forward to many more events.  Justin’s company tailors executive gifts for events and companies looking to find veteran made merchandise that has been vetted for quality.  His catalog has 33  vendors, covering a gambit of swag from tier one merch to tier three, he can meet any and all your needs!  On top of Szerds, he is a Biztalk radio host in the San Diego area, Justin has his hands in everything, so if you need it chances are he can find it.  The 2018 Military Influencers Conference Custom Challenge coin is available for sale in our shop and can be purchased with the optional gift box or in the standard PVC sleeve.  If you’re interested in Purchasing a Coin please follow the link here.

VETERAN BUSINESS OWNERS #GOCUSTOM

Making Custom Challenge Coins is always awesome, it truly is a labor of love!  Working with Veteran Business Owners makes it even better, sitting down and video conferencing as we go over your design ideas, importing you into our Project management software so you can track your custom coins progress is inspiring!  We work every day to make it easier for you to #GOCUSTOM, Click the link on the bottom of the page, tell us what you’re looking for and upload a few images!  Let us work our magic and bring your imagination to life, or scratch something on a barroom napkin, send us a snapshot of it and see how badass our designers really are!  One of the coolest coins we’ve designed so far came to us on a napkin from a husband making something special for his retiring wife.  Whatever the case, just know we make it easy to #GOCUSTOM!

Filed Under: New Coin Tagged With: Conference, Custom Challenge Coins, MIC2018

Space Force One

September 3, 2018 By PNR Leave a Comment

Our Collaboration With Salty Soldier

The project was pretty straight forward, take the Space Force t-shirt designs from the The Salty Soldier and turn it into a truly tricked out Space Force Challenge Coin. Anyone worth their salt in this game, understands the dynamic difference between designing something for a Custom Shirt and designing something for a Custom Challenge Coin. Understanding the fundamental design differences is why at Pitch and Rudder we have a department dedicated to designing just Custom Shirts. From the gate on this project we wanted to make sure we were looking at all the right angles; therefore we brought both our Custom T-shirt Department and Challenge Coin team on Zoom to hash out the details.

The Original Design

The shirt was designed for Direct to Garment, meaning the Salty Soldier didn’t have worry too about 1/2 tones or color restrictions as you would with Screen Printing. The gradients for the metal where rich and clean! The Vector files for the front, just required the 3D aspect to be assigned and the face to be polished up for metal work. All in all a 25 min Zoom conference was all it took to streamline the front for production!

Space Force Challenge Coin Design

With the front sorted out the Challenge Coin team took to designing the back. We employ five designers here at Pitch and Rudder and this project as a battle to see who could complete it first. Normally, we will just assign a designer and move on; however, every designer we have on the books wanted a crack at designing the back of this coin! When the dust settled, we decided to use pieces from each of the designers input in making the back of coin, it was just too cool of a project not to be apart of!

Space Force One

When all the pieces came together the coin came out amazing! We added those little touches that really set off the piece and as one of the first Space Force challenge coins to market, it hit all the right marks. It was creative, well thought out and not rushed. The Glitter on the back of the coin mixed in with the black paint really puts the image of space to mind while the two alien space crafts round out the mission! Say what you will about making a fifth branch of the service, but Space Force is funded and there’s probably a reason why…. But I wouldn’t worry too much, our forces are going to be HUGE!

Now our Trump Coins are expected to arrive in the next 2 weeks, we have them listed in the store for pre-sale Here If your interested! I have to say it was a blast working with James and Forrest at The Salty Soldier, I don’t expect this to be our last collaboration!

If your looking to Go Custom, Hit the link on the bottom and lets make our next post about your Rock Star project!


challenge coin, custom challenge coin, space foce

 

 

Filed Under: New Coin Tagged With: Custom Challenge Coins, Custom Shirts, Salty Soldier, Space Force, Trump

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Go to Next Page »
  • Store
  • Custom Military Belt Buckles
  • Gallery of Coins
  • About
  • Shop
  • Go Custom
  • News
  • Services
  • Cart
  • My Account
  • Product Gallery
  • Navy Chief Coins

Copyright © 2025 · Pitch & Rudder LLC. · All rights Reserved · Terms of Service · Privacy