Should I place the text on my challenge coin in the center or at the bottom?

Small Choice, Huge Impact

Assume you're interested in purchasing a round, medallion-shaped currency with a text-heavy design. Not only must you decide which images to pair with the text, but you must also select certain design options that will enable your text to stay legible. But did you realize there's another factor to consider: which direction your text will remain oriented in?

The text on the majority of challenge coins, particularly those at either extreme of the text spectrum (a couple of words or an entire side saturated with text), is oriented to the "bottom" of the coin. When the coin is held "right side up," all of the text stays legible. That, however, is not your only choice. Coins in the middle of the spectrum, for example, with just enough text to go around the edge of the coin, appear better when all of the text is oriented toward the center. Here's some quick design guidance to help you decide how to best orient the text on your coin.

How Many Messages Do You Have?

When making this choice, the first thing to consider is the amount of text on your coin. If you're working with a very text-heavy design, you'll probably want to maintain all of the text moving in the same direction.

When all of the text is oriented to the bottom of the coin, it is much easier to maintain the coin legible. It also eliminates the need for individuals to turn the coin in their hands to read each word. Furthermore, when there is that much text on a coin, it is simply not possible to make the text in any other way. So, if the amount of text in your coin design is somewhere in the range of the coin above, simply orient all of the text in the same way and call it a day.

However, if you only want to add a tiny amount of text to your coin, such as around the edge, you should consider an orientation in which all of the text faces the center of the coin.

Being Consistent

Our sales and art teams at Signature Coins are very much in support of text around the edge of the coin having a center-facing orientation. That is, the "top" of all the text on the coin's border will point towards the coin's outside edge, while the "bottom" of all the letters will point towards the coin's center.

As you can see, when the coin is held upright, the lines on the "bottom" of the coin will be upside down. While we believe that this is the best choice for certain challenge coin designs, the consensus at the office is that keeping your text orientation consistent is the best way to go.

When some of the words on your coin are oriented towards the middle of the coin while one or more are oriented towards the bottom of the coin, the text orientation is inconsistent. So, on the coin above, the words "Red Cloud," "Tomahawk I," and "Tomahawk II" are all oriented to the middle, while the word "Warrior" is oriented to the bottom. While this makes the coin legible when held upright, it also makes the word "Warrior" appear incorrect. As you examine the coin, the orientation of the other three phrases leads you to believe that the fourth word should also point in the same direction. When this isn't the case, something about your currency may appear to be off. Round currencies aren't the only ones that have this issue.

When the orientation of your coins is constant, they appear cleaner and the design more purposeful. Whether the text is always oriented towards the middle of the coin or is always oriented towards the bottom. Consistency is the better choice.

So, while we're more likely to recommend that you keep the text on your coin oriented towards the center (assuming you have enough text), the main thing we recommend is that you stay consistent with the way your text is oriented. If you're creating a coin with just enough text for the top and bottom edges, keep everything oriented to the bottom. However, if you're running text around the outside edge of the coin, consider whether orienting the text towards the center of the coin would be a better choice.