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The Phoenix Police Department
How Coins Can Build Teamwork: A Success Story
Officer Victor Rosado, a member of the Phoenix Police Department's Special Assignments Unit (SAU), was attending a training course in 2002 when a buddy from another department showed him his challenge coin. "The instant I saw the coin, I knew that we had to get one made for our team," Rosado said.
Since then, Officer Rosado has worked with NorthwestTerritorial Mint to make sure that every member of the Phoenix SAU gets a coin.
The instant I saw the coin, I knew that we had to get one made for our team.
- Officer Victor Rosado
"The coin is designed with our unit shield front and center so it's a lasting source of pride for the whole team," said Rosado. "We wear that symbol on our street and dress uniforms, as well as our tactical gear; it's a big part of who we are as a unit and now it's stamped into a coin we all carry," he said. In fact, it's become so popular that different versions of the coin in various metals and finishes are also now given out as keepsakes and gifts to family members, visiting officers, and VIPs.
As the cattle industry and mining expanded into the American West, so too did the number of people on the frontier. A means of marking the local Peace Officer soon became necessary. Lack of local badge-makers meant such lawmen had to make their badges from materials at hand. The tin star evolved as a star cutout from the top or bottom of a tin can. Another popular method of making a badge was to use a coin and cut out a star from the center. The Texas Rangers cut a star shape from a coin: the 1800s Mexican Ocho Reales (pieces of eight). In 1962 the Rangers resumed this practice using the 1940s Mexican Cinco Peso coins. 
