How to Design a Laser-Ready Challenge Coin

Watch the 2:18 Coin Designer tutorial: How to Design a Laser-Ready Challenge Coin with chapters, a step-by-step PDF guide and a link to open the tool.

In this tutorial

• Start by choosing a workflow. 2D engraving gives flat, high-contrast art for CO2 and fiber lasers. 3D relief adds a depth map for carving. We'll start with 2D.
• Type what goes in the center of the coin. We'll use an ornate compass rose, surrounded by a laurel wreath.
• Set the coin's real diameter. Your downloads are sized to it, so a two-inch coin comes out at exactly two inches. Then pick the edge, the finish, and the rim border.
• On the Style tab you can steer the look with any Style DNA card, or leave it fully custom.
• On the Text tab, add the words that run around the rim. Top: Reticle Red. Bottom: Est. 2026. The AI letters them right into the design.
• Now pick an engine. Spark is the value choice. Unbound gives the finest detail and works directly from a reference photo. Ultra adds rich detail and rim lettering. The mint button always shows the live price.
• Then mint. New accounts start with twelve free credits, and a 2D coin starts at two. A mint takes about a minute.
• Here's a coin minted with exactly these settings, reopened from the account's history. No credits are spent to reopen it.
• Preview Burn shows how it will look once it's burned into metal.
• The material swatches change the preview only. The files you download are always grayscale, ready for the laser.
• Download at 300 or 600 DPI. The file is cropped to the coin and sized to its diameter, so it drops into LightBurn at the right size.
• Want a different take? Remix makes a new variation from your current inputs. Make it 3D Relief turns this design into a depth map for carving, free with an account.

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