A Closer Look at Some of Our Favorite Cyber Security Coins
Every once and a while, we start to notice trends in challenge coin design. We made one set of handcuff bottle openers, and only a few weeks later, it felt like every police department across the country needed their own version of the handcuff shaped coins.
Over the last year or so, there has been one specific trend that our team has developed a fondness for; binary.
Almost every cyber security coin we help design incorporates binary in some way. Sometimes it takes up the whole coin, and other times it’s hidden out of sight. But no matter how the little ones and zeroes find their way into the artwork, it’s always fun to take a closer look.
Cyber Security Coin With Different Types of Binary Designs
Including binary in a challenge coin design might sound pretty straight forward, and it can be if you want it to be. However, there will always be ways to change things up and make your design stand out from the crowd. These next few coins all have binary, but the way they incorporate the ones and zeroes is unique.
This first coin was designed for the Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, and the binary code going through the heart of the design is easy to miss if you’re not looking closely. In this case, the binary creates a unique texture for the face of the coins. Using binary as the background texture also helps give the artwork a unique appearance.
The thumbprint at the center of the artwork is supposed to represent a digital fingerprint that members of the Computer Forensics team are supposed to investigate. However, instead of following clues from a physical crime scene, members of the team have to follow a digital trail to catch their perpetrator.
Instead of using the binary code as a background texture, the team at Blancco decided to put the code front and center in the design. The spiraling numbers get smaller and smaller, creating the illusion of a bottomless pit or digital void.
It’s refreshing to see binary incorporated in this spiral pattern instead of the standard linear pattern we are accustomed to. Most forms of code are laid out in the standard left to right format like the words on a page. However, we can also include binary orientated from top to bottom, diagonally or even in a spiral, like this design.
Decoding the Coins: What Does the Binary Actually Mean?
Not all cyber security coins have secret messages hidden in binary, but some do. So far, the coins we’ve shown you have a random sequence of ones and zeroes that doesn’t really mean anything (but we could be mistaken). However, these next coins have some interesting things to say if you take the time to decode the message.
This isn’t the first time we’ve designed coins that hide a simple message like this one. We made a turtle-shaped coins soldiers in Hawaii, and the binary code on the shells translates to the word “Cyber.” We also designed a cyber security coin for a team in Erbil Iraq that has binary code wrapped around the edge that translates to “KRSC.” We’re not quite sure what that means, but we thought it was fun all the same.
And then there are some challenge coins with binary code designs that have a different kind of message hidden in plain sight. This coin, for example, has regular English text mixed in with all the numbers. Take a look and see if you can find it.
The binary code doesn’t seem to translate to anything but random characters, but including the regular text in the sequence it a great way to hide a message in plain sight. Most people look at the coin and see a wall of numbers. The only reason we found it was because we were trying to decode the binary numbers. Otherwise, we would still think this design was nothing more than ones and zeroes.
Taking a Common Idea and Creating Something New
Including binary code in a challenge coin design is not a new idea, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create something fresh and exciting. We’ve made a lot of custom binary coins and cyber security coins over the years, and each team has their own unique story to tell. The artwork they create is always something special to behold.
And if binary is not your thing, there are other ways to include hidden messages in your design. The 501st Legion often incorporates messages in the Star Wars language, Aurebesh. We’ve also included bit64 and even brail on challenge coins. If you’re thinking about including a hidden message in your own design, we’ll help you dream up the perfect code the get the job done.
