I wonder what sort of coin makers are willing to make custom coins for start-up companies?   Depending on the imagination (and the budget) of the company, probably any of them.  Then again, it takes an exceptionally skilled craftsman to forge coins in the first place;  it takes an exceptionally opportunistic one to make the sorts of coins that my friends would want.

If the coin maker, for instance, were to start searching ads on, say, craig’s list in my neck of the woods, he would be liable to run into a handful of requests from Tea Partiers who want a seriers of their own challenge coins with Ron Paul heads and “Don’t Tread On Me” tails;  from bitter teachers’ unions with heads of great American educators and tails of book burnings; a set from iron workers and gun enthusiasts who thought that the N/R.A. Was just too tame:  their coin designs have iron crossbars on one side and GLOC-9s on the other; maybe a set of musicians with guitars on one side and a fiery drum set on the other.

But then again, coin makers aren’t too much in demand here.  For one thing, no one has the expendable income in this area to afford gas most times, let alone extra sets of coins.  A coin maker here had better be a veteran, had better make coins for people outside of this area, and had better make fabulous use of the internet, because he would get almost no business here.  There isn’t time for that sort of sentiment in this place.

If I were a custom coin maker in this place, I would try and create a market for my own currency.  I would encourage every single entrepreneur in my vicinity to invest in arcades and pay-to-play pool tables.  Each bar could charge more for its drinks and convert every last coin-operated machine to currencies specific to the venue.  Sure, your average mom-and-pop bar would be ridiculously stupid to spend the extra kind of cash it would take to buy (and keep) a bunch of unspendable coins in their establishment, but they could theoretically take advantage of the gimmick by keeping a specialized trademark of their place in pockets of random bar patrons.  If I were a coin maker in this part of the country, that’s what I would do.