How long into your service did you earn your first coin?

15 years and I honestly do not remember what I got it for

6 Months in. I received my first for being the honor Graduate of my AIT class.

I got my first coin back in Basic. 
One day our CSM just happened to be strolling by and he asked me to sing for him the Army song.
Terrified and trembling I mustered up the courage to sound off and push it out. About halfway through and with everyone's eyes on me, the CSM stopped me and coined me for my bravery. 

Good times.

6 months after I got to my first unit. My BN CSM and XO were visiting my PLT on Camp Carroll and myself and one other soldier had to pick them up and chauffeur them around. We each got coins at the end of the day even after leaving the XO at one of his meetings.

This coin sitrep has only been going strong in these last 12 years. If going in my time back in 70’s and 80’s it’s a right time-right place sit-rep. I’ve gotten a few
Veteran Service org coins.. and a V.F.W. Chaplain gave me a AF coin(got that in my wallet with a V.F.W. Life member coin in another wallet pocket.

I remember back when if s’body asked how many V.F.W. Life members
In the room or Canteen.. they were buying,... So we follow to Canteen andpull our the LM card.. now I pull out the coin.. (still got to pull out the wallet to get the coin out..). I’d observed at the post one of the Members buying drinks for his group on various occasion. .. well I knew none were L.M’s. (I do work on them especially when dues are going up to be L.M.’s.). Onan occasion way back when I first got to the Post, I did the “anybody in the room L.M’s” and 3 pulled their cards..
I was glad they were only drink’g beer.
So I bought 4 plus my own .. it was $1 beer hour.. that ewas good too.. the bar maid(same one that poured them other guys their drinks) said I wasn’t being “ “politically correct”.. this isn’t about being p.c., it’s about being L.M.s, them other guys miss out.. all they got to do is be L.M’s.. First.. when they get their cards or have their receipt and I ask again, they’ll get a beer... not before !... I do hope they’re drink’g drsught.. less expensive than can beer.... So she went to house committee to whine.. SURPRISE ! They backed me (she was on vacay for a week and. Mrs appointed a new committee(all L.M.s and a one a L.M Aux mbr. Yeah.. a little lopsided.. ( so 5 Post mbrs, 1 Aux mbr. Cmdr only votes to break a split tie Vote)... So she rallies to get more non-life mbrs on house committee (increase committee size)... So she tried to make her own rule; do that when she isn’t working. She’s a non-voting person because she’s an employee..even though she’s in Aux. We had a rule that an officer at Post level cannot be a Bar employee nor an Aux. Mbr who’s sn Officer. She rallied to get house committee to vote on a different day so she could be off for a meeting.. So she took 2 hrs vacay time so she could vote..
meeting was generally done at 0730..
That time was flexible.. So she could present what was going on.. Her beef then was the L.M. Cards .. her and her political correctness.. “What if they don’t want to or can’t afford to be L.M’s?”
Their loss.. they can make quarterly payments..if they can’t afford a one time fee. The V.F.W. Is not a democracy ! Not because of getting a drink but because dues were going up across board for regular members.. next one the next year for new L.M’s. ... so we had a big putsch for becoming L.M’s. .. and depending on age .. I became a Life Member in’91 or ‘92. I’d already renewed and decided to go L.M. Before vote by
Nat’l CofA.. I only had to pay a little more
My total payout was $160.. and.. they voted against it... that’s okay.. it doubled the next year.. it’d be over $400 .. We sold raffle tickets to win a L.M. We had to sell so many and if we sold enough, one more L.M. Be named. Aux had their’s we had ours... ..We sold for $10 a ticket .. for a young person 10 ticket chances was only $100. For a $400+ membership.
For an older Member it varies.. Say we’d earned enough to buy several memberships.. depending on age from 25 on up.. so we have 26 yr old win and 3 more in different 10 year apart Age. Groups would determine how many we can buy... We ran it for a year and were able to purchase 7 Life memberships... a couple really elderly guys won.. that was like $300 and some in their early 70’s..
We talked to membership and wanted to add more LMs... would they be opposed if we drew a few more tickets to partially pay on some mrmbrerships.. we had to post that idea and give more that bought tickets to vote on new ideas a chance to yea or nay.. we gave another 60 day grace period... Another young fella showed whose high number ticket didn’t get called yet.. objected and lost.. it didn’t matter.. we drew his ticket and he still only had to pay 50% on his life membership. We drew another 2 and paid 25% .. they were in their 60’s then..
So we drew a few more than we would of..
We decide to wait and do it again in the next Recruiting year.. that’d Be a few months away.. We voted to forward any remaining $ to the next drawings....

Wow this post blew up over night! Lol. Thank you everyone for sharing your stories!

Back in my day Challenge coins were unheard of.It was until after being out for 20 plus years did I hear of such a creature.Never been awarded one.I have been given a couple

I got my first coin after graduation of A-School for being top of the class, and my second during C-School for the same reason. It'd be nice to actually 'earn' a coin though.

we didn't have or where given coins will I was in.

I was about 18 months into my first duty station when I received my first coin. I competed in the USAREUR CAV Cup in 1992 with the team from 1/4 INF. We had a lot of fun and it was an awesome experience. We received 7th ATC coins from then MG Montgomery C. Meigs.