Challenge coins. Do you use them, collect them, or both?

I do both, and my rugby team has taken the tradition and if you are caught without yours , youl be buying a round! Love challenge coins but im older so maybe thats it. Semper Fi!

I collect the ones I've been awarded with, and have used my highest only one time against a boot who was determined to get a free drink

Never received one and didn't know about them till after I ETSed

I was in service from '81 to '92, never heard of them that whole time.

I have my original Combat Camera (both AVIS and ACCS versions) coins.. they were drinking coins. You had to buy one, and you had to honor all others in the placing them on the table and see who buys drinks or if you might get a free one by doing it.

But they became Atta boy coins.. I as a Graphics Specialist have done artwork for commanders to get coins made, I have won a few from commanders. I have one from the 8th Air Force Commander that I "won" because I found a few things in a video tape made by their intel section missed while my unit edited it for presentation. It is my most prized one..

I have a couple from foreign officers too..But they all sit in container.. now that I am retired.. they are just keepsakes for me.

I have a small collection. Some of mine were lost in a divorce situation while I was overseas. I received my last 1 in 2010 from General Petraeus while deployed.

Well I do not know what use them means to be honest. I am a soldier of the 80's and 90's. The 6 I received in 12 years were from personal security details or major accidents. 1 from General Burba when his child/relative was in a bad accident so he was likely biased but I pulled her out and gave CPR so he and his wife hugged me full of blood in the ER. 2 from Regimental SGM of the MP Corp in combat (David Stalter) Who I worked for in his earlier years. 1 from a Presidential escort in Central America and I have forgotten the other. In my day a coin was better than an Arcom and I asked each to write me a letter of recommendation. They did so when I was medically put out at 12 it lead to a great career in law enforcement.

I have a few i had out as rewards and such, most of the customs officer i work with a really big into collecting them. So they get me stuff and they get one.

I collected a few and would of love to have one when i was with 1/5 and mscfo rota.

In the old days it was rare to have them and it was usually the spec/ops/warfare guys that had them, I've met that challenge a few times.

I just have a few that were given to me through out the years of being in. They are a cool way to bring up stories of how I revived them but never been in a bar with other vets that used them