This week’s featured story is about the Maine Troop Greeters beginning the process of identifying every challenge coin in their museum and trying to piece together their stories.
The Maine Troop Greeters are citizen volunteers at Bangor International Airport who took it upon themselves to welcome home planeloads of troops returning from Operation Desert Storm. They have been greeting troops ever since.
As part of greeting the troops, the men and women returning from overseas have given the greeters gifts of challenge coins. Challenge coins have become very popular since Operation Desert Storm and a lot of units have been producing their own coins. To show their appreciation, troops have been placing challenge coins in the palm of their hands and transferring them to the Maine Troop Greeters during their handshake.
The Maine Troop Greeters have 6011 challenge coins in cases on the wall of their museum located in Bangor International Airport. Volunteers will be researching the coins and posting their findings on Facebook. They want to share what they have and hopefully find out more information from the public.
The first challenge coin they are featuring is from the Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 332 (VMFA(AW)-332):
If you are a Facebook user, it might be fun to follow the Maine Troop Greeters to see the Challenge Coins they have collected.
And now the news…
The Royal Mint avoided producing a commemorative coin to mark the Battle of Bannockburn for fear of whipping up support for Scottish independence. → Read more at dailymail.co.uk
France could soon abolish its one and two centime coins in a first step towards creating a zero-cash economy. → Read more at thelocal.fr
The Maine Troop Greeters are on a mission to research and share the history behind each of these coins. → Read more at wabi.tv
A 33-year-old private firm employee alleged he had placed an order with Flipkart for a 20gm gold coin, but received an empty box from PVC Logistics. → Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com
The centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will be saluted with a commemorative coin from the U.S. Mint, if U.S. Rep. Don Beyer can convince colleagues of the → Read more at insidenova.com