Challenge Coin USMC 1st Marine Division Commemorative Coin

The 1ST MARINE DIVISION CHALLENGE COIN offered is an official product licensed by the United States Marine Corps,part of the Patriotic Collector's Series. The license is certified by the Department of the Navy hologram sticker on the packaging.

The 1st U.S. Marine Division is the oldest, largest, and most decorated unit in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The division is descended from the 1st Advance Base Brigade (1913) and the 1st Marine Brigade (1935). On February 1, 1941, before the United States joined the war, the 1st Marine Brigade was transformed into a division.

The 1st Division of the USMC has been fighting in the Pacific since December 1941, but it was not until the battle for Guadalcanal island that it ended with the first American victory in World War II. The island of Guadalcanal lies in the Solomon Islands archipelago, where a strong Japanese garrison has been located. The fighting began with the landing of the 1st Division of the USMC in August 1942 and continued until early February 1943.

Due to this first victory in World War II, the official insignia of the 1st Division of the USMC includes the name of the island of Guadalcanal.

The insignia contains the national colors of the USA - red, white and blue enclosed in the shape of a diamond with a blue background with the red number "1" on which it is inscribed with white letters "GUADALCANAL". White stars on a blue background, symbolizing the night sky under which the battles took place, are in the arrangement of the constellation Cross of the South.

In modern times, the 1st Division participated in operations in Somalia, Kuwait, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan.