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[EAST] 2012 Challenge Coins - Orders Closed

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  • MasterRokkuMasterRokku Registered User regular
    Heleor wrote:
    As far as other aesthetics go, I am in favor of leaving the edge and color as they are. I don't actually prefer one color or style of edge to another, but I think it helps make the coins look like they are part of a set. Same color, size, edge, etc...

    The three coins we have so far all have different edges and colors already, so it may be too late for that...

    I thought this last year was the first year for PAX East challenge coins, and that's why I posted what I did. I think the PAX East coins should have some consistency to them. I love the classic arcade theme ideas, I mean, that's where the modern age of video games began!

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  • HeleorHeleor SeattleRegistered User regular
    Last year was in fact the first East coin, but earlier in the thread someone posted pictures of all three coins. There's lots of people who go to both Prime and East. :)

  • Commander CainCommander Cain Registered User regular
    Ok so I'm thinking this now:

    Obverse: A joystick or some form of arcade control (just so the lone stick doesn't look phallic or anything) with pin ball paddles on each side in the place of oak leaves. Then have something similar to last years PAX East coin (where the dice are forming a half circle on the top) but since dice was already used I'm out of ideas for what should be there. Something gaming or tabletop related I would think.

    Reverse: Still down with the USS Constitution and it seems most people are as well.

    General: Keep the edge relatively the same as past years because breaking tradition is lame :P

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  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    a half circle on the top could be arcade buttons.

  • King of MarsKing of Mars A freak among weirdos A city in my mindRegistered User regular
    Was there/will there be pinball at East? Because there should be. And chess (but that's just me).

    Also voting to keep, but clean up, the Revere statue on the obverse, but the USS Constitution is still cool. Also voting to keep the smooth milling.

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  • Commander CainCommander Cain Registered User regular
    Was there/will there be pinball at East? Because there should be. And chess (but that's just me).

    Also voting to keep, but clean up, the Revere statue on the obverse, but the USS Constitution is still cool. Also voting to keep the smooth milling.

    There was at East 2010 I know for sure, I took pics of the arcade room and I found a pic of a guy playing pinball...so yes lol.

    I'm up for either milling, I prefer the same as on the Prime coins but if you guys want to make smooth an East tradition (since thats what we used last) I'm cool with that too.

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  • TopherRocksTopherRocks Rockstar Beard Grower Kent, OH or Long Island, NYRegistered User regular
    Firstly, I love my coin from last year. It's one of my favorite pieces of PAX that I brought home.

    As for the design, I'm digging the retro gaming ideas, I'm partial to keeping Paul Revere on the reverse and I'm not too keen on smooth edges but I won't be heartbroken over either way on that one.

  • LordGimmikLordGimmik Registered User regular
    I was too late for a coin last year, but I'll be getting one or two this year.

    I'll throw in my 2-cents on the design (haha - cents... coin...)

    For the front: I know last year it had a predominantly tabletop design. I think we should avoid the temptation to lash out this year with a wholly console design. PAX, for me, is awesome because it incorporate all of the areas of gaming that I love, e.g. console, PC, board, tabletop, and more. I think the coin should represent that same unity by incorporating elements from all those gaming families in one way or another. This can be as simple as a D20 and a thimble.

    For the back: I think we should change it up but keep the spirit the same. I'm not sure if being from Boston helps or hinders me when it comes to ideas, but I would like to see something unique but iconic. I was thinking that since we did Paul Revere last year, maybe we could keep the theme. I think two old-school lanterns would be really cool. You all know the saying, "One if by land, two if by sea." The British came by sea, so two lanterns were hung from the steeple in the Old North Church. It's unique and most people should make he connection, especially if we wrap the image with the saying "Two if by Sea."

    I don't really have a preference on the edges other than to say that I think reeded edges are used in currency to signify value. In other words, smooth edges are easier to make and thus perceived to be cheaper or of lesser quality.

    Fun fact - Paul Revere made coinage in his career as a silversmith. I wonder if he used reeded edges?

  • KailKail Keeper of Awesomeness WMASSRegistered User regular
    I'm really into the whole Ironsides idea. Really says Boston to me. The other thing is i like the whole Arcade stick idea. I remember using my NES Advantage Link and i think that would look great on the back. But that's just me.

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  • flatlineflatline Registered User regular
    LordGimmik wrote:
    I don't really have a preference on the edges other than to say that I think reeded edges are used in currency to signify value. In other words, smooth edges are easier to make and thus perceived to be cheaper or of lesser quality.

    Not really. Reeding was done for two reasons - to prevent counterfeiting, and to prevent people from shaving the edges off the coins (when the coinage was made from actual precious metal). Hence why it is associated with currency, and military challenge coins and the like are generally smooth.

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  • MasterRokkuMasterRokku Registered User regular
    Heleor wrote:
    Last year was in fact the first East coin, but earlier in the thread someone posted pictures of all three coins. There's lots of people who go to both Prime and East. :)

    I think the PAX East coins should maintain the edge, size, and color that the first coin had. I realize this will make them different from the Prime coins and I think that's okay. Prime coins and East coins wouldn't really be part of the same set as they are different events. The Prime coins, the 2 I've seen anyway, are already 2 different sizes and colors...I would like to see the East coin avoid at least that much, unless there was a change for like the 5th or 10th year of PAX East.

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  • griff6659griff6659 Syracuse , NYRegistered User regular
    This is my second year going to Pax East and I want to be more into it. What is the Challenge coin and how do you get one?

    Well, that is a thing!

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  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    griff6659 wrote:
    This is my second year going to Pax East and I want to be more into it. What is the Challenge coin and how do you get one?

    As for the what, if you read the first page of the thread you'll see some examples. It's basically a commemorative coin that is in limited production just for this event.
    As for the how, stay tuned to this thread closer to pax.

  • griff6659griff6659 Syracuse , NYRegistered User regular
    zerzhul wrote:
    griff6659 wrote:
    This is my second year going to Pax East and I want to be more into it. What is the Challenge coin and how do you get one?

    As for the what, if you read the first page of the thread you'll see some examples. It's basically a commemorative coin that is in limited production just for this event.
    As for the how, stay tuned to this thread closer to pax.

    Thanks for the information!

    Well, that is a thing!

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    Hotel [x] Transportaion [Driving] Passes [x] Challenge Coin [Soon]

  • LordGimmikLordGimmik Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    flatline wrote:
    LordGimmik wrote:
    I don't really have a preference on the edges other than to say that I think reeded edges are used in currency to signify value. In other words, smooth edges are easier to make and thus perceived to be cheaper or of lesser quality.

    Not really. Reeding was done for two reasons - to prevent counterfeiting, and to prevent people from shaving the edges off the coins (when the coinage was made from actual precious metal). Hence why it is associated with currency, and military challenge coins and the like are generally smooth.

    Good points all.

    LordGimmik on
  • karmacappakarmacappa Registered User regular
    I don't think we need to worry about an arcade cabinet being too much to fit on the coin. That much is definitely "doable" Perhaps a cabinet of the videogame "PAX AETERNUS" or something similar.

    As for the ship, what we need to do is determine which elements of the ship would go in. We can't do all the rigging and millions of details of a real ship, so we'd need someone to simplify down the picture into the basic parts which identify the ship.

    As for what we submit, anything we give them will probably be used as a reference, then their mold artists will create the mold based on what we submit. While more detail is good, that detail is more to inform the mold artist than something that is directly placed on the coin.

    Basically, we need to figure out what elements we want on the coin (hopefully within the month) and submit those. We'll be given a quote with a die fee, and I'll organize a donation drive to fill that fee. After we pay that, it takes a couple of weeks minimum of back and forth to approve artwork, create a die, and make a sample. Depending on how many times we have to redo the die, we'll then begin production. USCC will put up a sale item in their store for people to place their individual orders. As USCC receives the coins from the factory, they'll then ship it on to the customers.


    Right now our most important task will be to determine what subject matter will be on the coin, and roughly what elements will be featured of that subject matter. So let's stick with that for now.

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  • KailKail Keeper of Awesomeness WMASSRegistered User regular
    I think the main part of the Constitution is that we should be able to see the name, somewhere. But i really enjoy this picture CLICK ME. If we can implement some of the masts and the sails that make the Constitution it should be nice.

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  • cyntheticcynthetic Registered User regular
    I definitely agree that something akin to an Atari joystick would encompass console gaming as a whole, because noone is going to be like, "but I don't play Atari" and other such silly console-war comments. It's simple, it's fitting, I love it. Pinball paddles might look cool, if they do indeed appear to be pinball paddles at first look, and not weird wedgy things. Ping pong paddles might be more recognizable, while still holding a lot of appropriate reference to PA. Though neither pinball nor ping pong are actually a part of PAX so...idk.

  • karmacappakarmacappa Registered User regular
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/866996487/

    This is a good example of what I mean by picking and choosing elements to be in a picture. It's from a Franklin Mint coin commemorating the Boston Tea Party. Notice how they focus on certain details to make it obvious that people are dumping boxes overboard from a ship. When we're talking about a complex subject, we need to figure out what details to include, and which to omit.

    "In Europe, it's not America."
    Scott Kurtz, The Morning After, Aug 31 - 2010
  • ThemiscyraThemiscyra Registered User regular
    Yay, challenge coins! I will definitely be on board to help pay for the die.

    As far as design notes go, I agree with the Old Ironsides idea; there are certainly other landmarks in Boston, but something about the Constitution particularly appeals. Slogans should definitely be the same. And I like the idea of an Atari joystick, that's iconic enough that it should work. Not sure about pinball or ping pong paddles...it seems like the gaming references should tie in directly to PAX. Granted, ping pong is part of the Penny Arcade mythology, but it hasn't really been an event at PAX. Maybe a DS or a Pokeball or something? Pokemon seems like a pretty big deal in the PAX community.

    Suggestion for the border detail: we had Pac-Man going after some dots this year; maybe to tie into that, we could have some ghosts?

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  • KoalaBro2KoalaBro2 Registered User regular
    Based on karmacappa's input on the effort needed to create a die and so forth, as well as the rapid rate at which we seem to be reaching a near-consensus, it seems like moving up the timetable makes sense. Let's nail down the last of our concept ideas this week (i.e., by the 12th). Then we'll solicit formal mock-ups from the 12th through the end of the month (with Thanksgiving, I want to make sure all artists have the opportunity to submit). We could then take 10 days to vote (December 1st through 10th), at which point karmascappa can reach out to USCC. I assume we'd have a quote within a week, allowing us to start raising money on December 16th. That way, even with a few weeks of back and forth on die re-dos, we should still be mailing coins no later than the end of February. Sound good to everyone?

    As far as the other details everyone's talked about:
    Materials
    Everyone seems to agree on antique nickel, and there's been no strong push for the larger size, so we keep that as 1.75". For edges, there seems to be a narrow margin for keeping the smooth edges (I count 5 votes for smooth versus 4 for ridges, with one additional person "leaning" toward smooth). Therefore, seems like at the moment we're sticking with smooth, which I agree with. In addition to all of flatline's excellent points about ridges being specifically for currency (not challenge coins), our supplier, US Challenge Coins, also hates them. Why antagonize our supplier?

    Obverse
    The only two ideas that seem to have traction are arcade machines (whether the whole cabinet or just the controls) and Atari joysticks. Those seem conceptually similar enough that I don't think we have to choose between them until we reach the mock-up stage. For the rim, everything stays the same (Wheaton's Law in Latin, "Welcome Home," and Pac-Man). While Themiscyra's idea of replacing Pac-Man with ghosts for the rim is cute, I think 1) everyone likes keeping the rim the same to tie the coins together (that's the one thing that Prime DID keep consistent from one year to the next), 2) Pac-Man has a specific PA connection, being Gabe's tattoo, and 3) I think the level of detail around the perimeter might make it hard to make out the ghosts.

    Reverse
    Clearly, everyone likes the USS Constitution, AKA "Old Ironsides." I humbly bow to the will of the crowd. Obviously we'd have the same basic text (PAX East 2012, Boston, MA, April 6-8).

    Thus, unless there's a strong push for a new design element by the end of the week, I expect that our instructions for those who wish to submit mock-ups are: nickel, smooth edges, USS Constitution on one side, and an arcade machine (or Atari joystick) theme on the other, with all text borders as were done last year.

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Good summary KoalaBro2. I would point out that I think the Atari Joystick idea doesn't fit most of the discussion. Most of the points were about an arcade stick/arcade cabinet/pinball cabinet and the atari joystick seemed a little out of left field in that regard. It's not a bad idea in and of itself but if the mob has been pushing for something arcade-themed for this coin the atari just doesn't fit.

  • KoalaBro2KoalaBro2 Registered User regular
    Fair enough. I guess Atari joysticks seemed "similar enough" in the sense that they come from about the same era (heyday of arcades was more or less the days of the Atari) and have, to my mind, a similar aesthetic. But if you think we really ought to declare one or the other to be the official guideline, I guess you're probably right. In choosing between the two, I definitely come down on the side of the arcade cabinet/controls, but we'll give people a few more days to talk it out.

  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    Yeah, they are definitely of a similar era and aesthetic, no question. I was mainly speaking towards the arcade "theme" I thought the discussion was on track for.

  • gigabraingigabrain Some guy...yknow New HampshireRegistered User regular
    The arcade cabinet would be my choice over the Atari joystick...though that might be something to keep in mind for next year or Prime maybe?

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  • LordGimmikLordGimmik Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    I will love the coin no matter how the group decides on the design.

    That being said, I still feel like Iron-sides is done to death around Boston. I understand that it is a very recognizable symbol of Boston, which is why it's used a lot, but I'm not in love with that idea for the Challenge Coin. I think there are other things that are very iconic of Boston but largely unexplored. Some example might be: A Bean-Pot, The Duckling Statue from near the Charles, the CITGO sign from Kenmore Square, the Old North Church, etc...

    For the Obverse, I like the arcade cabinet idea. I wouldn't mind a boardgame theme, but I'm sure I'm in the minority there. (Maybe a Meeple PLAYING an arcade game?!?)

    Maybe we should spend a short amount of time collecting nominations for various aspects of the coin, then setup a poll where we can all vote. The results will be definitive and it's sets up a final deadline by which all decisions will be made.

    LordGimmik on
  • Commander CainCommander Cain Registered User regular
    The Arcade Cabinet/Arcade Stick because I feel fits better than a single console but even so the Atari Stick is simplistic enough to represent that entire era. Some people might be like "that’s an Atari stick" but others will be more apt to think of that style of gaming in general so I think it would also fit, and it would look better on the coin than a giant Arcade Machine so I'm down for either.

    Also,
    cynthetic wrote:
    Though neither pinball nor ping pong are actually a part of PAX so...idk.
    They have Pinball in the arcade freeplay area. That’s why I suggested Pinball paddles instead of oak leaves. That and cuz I've never seen oak leaves at PAX and they are mad cool :P I do like your idea about ping pong paddles but I think its more PA specific than universal gaming. How many gamers play ping pong or played ping pong regularly? Probably a few. How many played or regularly played pinball? Probably a lot.

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  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    LordGimmik wrote:
    That being said, I still feel like Iron-sides is done to death around Boston. I understand that it is a very recognizable symbol of Boston, which is why it's used a lot, but I'm not in love with that idea for the Challenge Coin.

    This is actually one of the big reasons why I *am* a fan of it for the challenge coin. It's ultra recognizable for Boston. It's in the same vein as doing paul revere and the church last year. If this coin were to be some unique Boston thing I might agree with you, but it's really supposed to tie PAX to boston and big symbols do a good job of that.

  • LordGimmikLordGimmik Registered User regular
    zerzhul wrote:

    This is actually one of the big reasons why I *am* a fan of it for the challenge coin. It's ultra recognizable for Boston. It's in the same vein as doing paul revere and the church last year. If this coin were to be some unique Boston thing I might agree with you, but it's really supposed to tie PAX to boston and big symbols do a good job of that.

    I was just thinking that if people buy other Boston souvenirs while in town, they are likely to have the Constitution in it. So rather than go home with two Constitution shot-glasses, a Constitution refrigerator magnet, a Constitution t-shirt, and also a Constitution challenge coin, it might be good to offer something a little more unique.

    I will leave this to the will of the forum, but here's an idea. Maybe we don't have to take the coin too seriously. We can put a PAX spin on whatever we choose. Here's a fun example I just thought up. Everyone has the Constitution, but nobody will have the Constitution firing on an enemy with the line :"You sunk my frigate!"

    Boom - We just turn the USS Constitution's battle with Java in the Worlds most epic game of Battleship!

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution#Constitution_vs_Java

  • peetsnackpeetsnack Team Green Poké Assist, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Head Girl House Hufflepuff The Cleave LandsRegistered User regular
    LordGimmik wrote:
    zerzhul wrote:

    This is actually one of the big reasons why I *am* a fan of it for the challenge coin. It's ultra recognizable for Boston. It's in the same vein as doing paul revere and the church last year. If this coin were to be some unique Boston thing I might agree with you, but it's really supposed to tie PAX to boston and big symbols do a good job of that.

    I was just thinking that if people buy other Boston souvenirs while in town, they are likely to have the Constitution in it. So rather than go home with two Constitution shot-glasses, a Constitution refrigerator magnet, a Constitution t-shirt, and also a Constitution challenge coin, it might be good to offer something a little more unique.

    I think that if someone has that many Constitution things, they might just be a fan of the Constitution. Just sayin'.

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  • KorvasKorvas Registered User regular
    LOL!

    I do like the idea of the bean pot personally... I mean whats a big symbol of Boston without some Boston baked beans! However seeing as ironside is in the numbers right now I think this is the one to go with for this year, but I am def putting down the pot of beans as my first thought for next years coin! I think it's hilarious, and would put a nice spin of fun to the coins.... not that they aren't fun now or anything... lol

  • Commander CainCommander Cain Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    LordGimmik wrote:
    zerzhul wrote:

    This is actually one of the big reasons why I *am* a fan of it for the challenge coin. It's ultra recognizable for Boston. It's in the same vein as doing paul revere and the church last year. If this coin were to be some unique Boston thing I might agree with you, but it's really supposed to tie PAX to boston and big symbols do a good job of that.

    I was just thinking that if people buy other Boston souvenirs while in town, they are likely to have the Constitution in it. So rather than go home with two Constitution shot-glasses, a Constitution refrigerator magnet, a Constitution t-shirt, and also a Constitution challenge coin, it might be good to offer something a little more unique.

    I will leave this to the will of the forum, but here's an idea. Maybe we don't have to take the coin too seriously. We can put a PAX spin on whatever we choose. Here's a fun example I just thought up. Everyone has the Constitution, but nobody will have the Constitution firing on an enemy with the line :"You sunk my frigate!"

    Boom - We just turn the USS Constitution's battle with Java in the Worlds most epic game of Battleship!

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution#Constitution_vs_Java
    Its not like the Constitution is the only landmark of Boston people use on merch. There are a ton of popular ones and if you have a bunch of Constitution stuff is cuz you like the Constitution. All landmarks everywhere are done to death and it would be like that with any Boston icon. You think we don't have enough Paul Revere up in here? :P Any recognizable landmark will have an overabundance of merch for it, fact. If you use something that there isn't a lot of merch for its cuz that isn't a recognizable landmark. I'm not saying we have to use the Constitution but just pointing out that your logic would remove any easily recognizable landmark from our list of options. If you'd like to use something else that’s fine and I'm up for the discussion. My vote is that we make it a landmark of some kind but we can still put a little spin on it if we want to (although I personally think your suggestion is a little too out there but that’s just me). For example somebody suggested the two lanterns (for that whole "one if by land and two if by sea") and we could do something like "one if by land, two if by PAX" or something goofy but I don't want to take the goofiness too far cuz I would like the image itself to be an actual landmark image like all the past coins.

    Commander Cain on
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  • cpt_knotscpt_knots Registered User regular
    I missed out on getting one last year, about how much does one of these coins cost?

  • KhadourKhadour Dinosaur Cupcake Hillsboro, ORRegistered User regular
    cpt_knots wrote:
    I missed out on getting one last year, about how much does one of these coins cost?

    Just checked my receipt from last year. 6 of 'em were $27, shipped.

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  • zerzhulzerzhul Registered User, Moderator mod
    cpt_knots wrote:
    I missed out on getting one last year, about how much does one of these coins cost?

    It depends. The die cost last year was around $300? I think? and people donate to fill that bucket up, so you could pay whatever you want into the donation bucket. The per-coin cost is pretty low, around $5-8 over the past few years. These things could change though.

  • macrogeekmacrogeek Registered User regular
    If you need arcade game images for reference I have a bunch of cabinet photos here: http://www.rawrphoto.com/Video-Games/Cedar-Point-Arcade/12553875_tQvB4K#900907092_6vvJ8

    How about an arcade stick and 6 buttons, the classic SFII layout. Or a stick and 4 directional arrows.

  • flatlineflatline Registered User regular
    LordGimmik wrote:
    I will love the coin no matter how the group decides on the design.

    That being said, I still feel like Iron-sides is done to death around Boston. I understand that it is a very recognizable symbol of Boston, which is why it's used a lot, but I'm not in love with that idea for the Challenge Coin. I think there are other things that are very iconic of Boston but largely unexplored. Some example might be: A Bean-Pot, The Duckling Statue from near the Charles, the CITGO sign from Kenmore Square, the Old North Church, etc...

    For the Obverse, I like the arcade cabinet idea. I wouldn't mind a boardgame theme, but I'm sure I'm in the minority there. (Maybe a Meeple PLAYING an arcade game?!?)

    Maybe we should spend a short amount of time collecting nominations for various aspects of the coin, then setup a poll where we can all vote. The results will be definitive and it's sets up a final deadline by which all decisions will be made.

    I don't know what anything you mentioned is except the Old North Church (which was used last year). Bean-pot? CITGO sign (I don't even know what Kenmore Square is)? One thing to keep in mind, to me, the "landmark" needs to be recognizable as a symbol of Boston to people who have never been there before. I have only been to Boston twice - for PAX East 2010 and 2011. Paul Revere/Old North and the Constitution are both symbols that I can correlate with Boston.

    Also, last year I suggested "PAX: Where everyone knows your game". It was fairly well received, but the general consensus was to keep the Latin. Aside from the gaming-themed imagery, we haven't really done 'whimsical' - the coins themselves are very handsome and well done, so I'm not sure that people would like to have something silly like "You sunk my frigate".

    PS - This is the most epic game of Battleship.

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  • KoalaBro2KoalaBro2 Registered User regular
    Yeah, inside jokes and goofy stuff is for projects like the excellent PAX East Trading Cards. The Challenge Coin is more serious, the kind of thing that collectors might scour Ebay for a century from now. I think the best proposed joke last year was to put "One if by LAN, two if by Wii" next to the picture of Paul Revere. Even that was rejected. Jokes just don't go on the challenge coin.

    I also agree with keeping the landmark ultra-recognizable. It's meant to say "Boston" to the casual outsider. If someone from Chicago looks at it and doesn't know what it represents, then it's failed. That being said, as a member of a fraternal organization, I've seen a lot of medals from various meetings produced over the last century or so, and the Boston bean pot does crop up with surprising frequency on the medals from Boston chapters (here's a nice one that incorporates both the bean pot and the harbor, from a meeting in San Francisco in 1904). I still prefer the USS Constitution, but sure, the bean pot might be a potentially viable idea for next year.

  • gigabraingigabrain Some guy...yknow New HampshireRegistered User regular
    edited November 2011
    KoalaBro2 wrote:
    Yeah, inside jokes and goofy stuff is for projects like the excellent PAX East Trading Cards. The Challenge Coin is more serious, the kind of thing that collectors might scour Ebay for a century from now. I think the best proposed joke last year was to put "One if by LAN, two if by Wii" next to the picture of Paul Revere. Even that was rejected. Jokes just don't go on the challenge coin.

    I also agree with keeping the landmark ultra-recognizable. It's meant to say "Boston" to the casual outsider. If someone from Chicago looks at it and doesn't know what it represents, then it's failed. That being said, as a member of a fraternal organization, I've seen a lot of medals from various meetings produced over the last century or so, and the Boston bean pot does crop up with surprising frequency on the medals from Boston chapters (here's a nice one that incorporates both the bean pot and the harbor, from a meeting in San Francisco in 1904). I still prefer the USS Constitution, but sure, the bean pot might be a potentially viable idea for next year.

    +1 to the no jokes. I've been awarded many challenge coins from both the military and other groups and very VERY few have jokes on them. The only ones that I've received with jokes on them are "unofficial" and aren't shown off outside of the group.

    Also that medallion seems to match one I've seen in a display case at a certain building in Boston.

    gigabrain on
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  • LordGimmikLordGimmik Registered User regular
    gigabrain wrote:
    KoalaBro2 wrote:
    Yeah, inside jokes and goofy stuff is for projects like the excellent PAX East Trading Cards. The Challenge Coin is more serious, the kind of thing that collectors might scour Ebay for a century from now. I think the best proposed joke last year was to put "One if by LAN, two if by Wii" next to the picture of Paul Revere. Even that was rejected. Jokes just don't go on the challenge coin.

    I also agree with keeping the landmark ultra-recognizable. It's meant to say "Boston" to the casual outsider. If someone from Chicago looks at it and doesn't know what it represents, then it's failed. That being said, as a member of a fraternal organization, I've seen a lot of medals from various meetings produced over the last century or so, and the Boston bean pot does crop up with surprising frequency on the medals from Boston chapters (here's a nice one that incorporates both the bean pot and the harbor, from a meeting in San Francisco in 1904). I still prefer the USS Constitution, but sure, the bean pot might be a potentially viable idea for next year.

    +1 to the no jokes. I've been awarded many challenge coins from both the military and other groups and very VERY few have jokes on them. The only ones that I've received with jokes on them are "unofficial" and aren't shown off outside of the group.

    Also that medallion seems to match one I've seen in a display case at a certain building in Boston.

    If everyone thinks the coin needs to be super serious, then I'll respect that. I'll remind you though, this is PAX. Three days of people running around dressed as Pokemon and Power Rangers, not a constitutional oversight committee. At what point did any part of PAX get serious? I don't think I had a serious thought for fours days last year other then "I seriously need to find a restroom."

    I would also point out that regardless of the name - this isn't really a challenge coin when anybody can go online and order one. There is no membership required, and the only barrier is having an extra $6. This is a collectors coin, nothing more.

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