Die Struck Medals
Clean relief with a classic official look. Best for academic honors, corporate recognition, and formal ceremonies where clean lines matter more than dimensional drama.
CUSTOM MANUFACTURING SINCE 1989
Custom Medals for Awards
Medals that feel worth earning. Built around your design, your event, and the people you want to recognize. Not a template with a logo dropped in. The Monterey Company has manufactured custom award medals for schools, sports leagues, businesses, nonprofits, and public safety groups since 1989.
Free Art & Design
Low Minimums
Custom Shapes & Finishes
Trusted Since 1989
Medal Styles
Popular Custom Medal Styles Built to Order
Different events call for different builds. Die struck medals for crisp, classic detail. Die cast medals for depth and dimensional shapes. Enamel color for bold brand-matched fills. Full color print when the artwork requires photo-grade accuracy.
Die Cast Medals
3D details and custom shapes. Deeper relief and dimensional impact. Best for sports medals, race finishers, and designs where the medal itself is the statement.
Enamel Color Medals
Soft enamel or hard enamel fills in school colors, team colors, or brand standards. Bright color, metal borders, and a finish built to withstand daily wear.
Full Color Print Medals
Photo-grade printing for complex artwork, gradients, and detailed logos that enamel cannot reproduce. Best for race medals with sponsor artwork and event medals with layered designs.
Use Cases
Custom Award Medals for Every Kind of Program
Custom medals work as well for a company anniversary as they do for a 5K finish line. The design changes. The quality standard doesn't. Schools, businesses, nonprofits, and public safety groups order through The Monterey Company for one reason: the medal has to match the moment.
Custom Race Medals
5Ks, marathons, triathlons, and charity runs. Finisher medals and age-group awards.
Sports & League Medals
Team tournaments, youth leagues, and multi-division meets. Insert-friendly for placement awards.
Employee Recognition
Service awards, milestone celebrations, and annual recognition programs that stay on a desk, not in a drawer.
Academic Honors
Graduation, honor roll, competition awards, and school pride programs.
Public Safety Recognition
Police, fire, EMS, and military recognition medals with department colors and unit artwork.
Nonprofit & Fundraising Events
Charity walks, gala awards, and fundraising milestones that reflect donor and sponsor visibility.
Custom Medals for Awards That Feel Worth Earning
A custom award medal has one job: make the recipient feel like the recognition was real. That comes down to two things. The design work that happens before production. The finish work that happens after. A template-stamped medal with a logo dropped in hits neither of those marks.
The Monterey Company builds custom medals the other way. Your artwork gets cleaned up and set into a production-ready file. You approve a digital proof. Then die struck, die cast, enamel color, or full color print production begins. Metal finish, ribbon, engraving, and packaging all get picked to match the ceremony tier.
The result is a medal that holds up under photos, survives the drawer test, and looks like something the organization actually put thought into. Schools, sports leagues, corporate recognition programs, nonprofits, race directors, and public safety groups have ordered custom award medals through us for that exact reason.
Design Quality Matters
Generic Stock Medal vs. Custom Monterey Company Medal
The difference between a medal people keep and one they lose in a drawer usually comes down to two things. The design work before production. The finish work after. Drag the slider to see what that looks like on the same award tier.
Gold, silver, and bronze in polished or brushed finishes. Antique variants available for a classic aged finish. Finish choice sets the ceremony tier before anyone reads the engraving.
Polished Gold
Polished Silver
Polished Bronze
Antique Gold
Antique Silver
Brushed
Soft enamel for a tactile recessed feel. Hard enamel for a smooth flat surface. Color-match to school colors, team colors, or brand standards using standard Pantone references.
Soft Enamel
Tactile recessed feel
Hard Enamel
Smooth flat surface
Pantone Match
Exact brand colors
Round, shield, star, rectangle, or fully custom-cut shapes. Raised relief and dimensional detail are standard on die cast builds. Complex shapes cost the same to tool as round if we know early.
Round
Shield
Star
Rectangle
Custom Die-Cut
3D Relief
Standard stock colors, woven or custom sublimated full color print ribbons. Neck ribbons, drape ribbons, and pin-back options. Ribbons change how the medal is presented before the medal is even seen.
Stock Colors
Red, blue, gold, navy, black
Woven
Patterns and stripes
Sublimated Print
Full color artwork
Neck Drape
Standard wear option
Names, places, dates, divisions, and event text. Front or back engraving. Useful for finisher medals, placement awards, and employee recognition programs where each medal gets a unique detail.
Name Engraving
Date & Event
Placement
Division
Velvet presentation boxes, clamshell acrylic cases, and standard poly bags. Upgraded packaging raises perceived value the moment the box opens. Worth considering for service awards and formal ceremonies.
Velvet Box
Premium presentation
Clamshell Case
Clear acrylic display
Poly Bag
Standard bulk packaging
Why Monterey
Built to Match the Moment
Custom award medals have been part of The Monterey Company since 1989, and that experience shows up in the details buyers care about most. We clean up your artwork, build a digital proof, and wait for your signoff before anything goes into production. That process catches the expensive mistakes while they are still cheap to fix.
We produce medals for schools, sports leagues, corporate recognition programs, nonprofits, race directors, and public safety groups. Some customers come to us for a one-off ceremony. Others order annually for recurring programs. In both cases, our team keeps the job moving and stays easy to reach from first proof to final delivery.
35+
Years
1,000+
Reviews
★★★★★
Free
Art & Proofs
4
Medal Styles
Explore More Custom Products
Custom medals often sit alongside other recognition items. Here is what else The Monterey Company builds.
FAQ
Custom Medal FAQs
Q
What is the minimum order for custom medals?
Our minimum order for custom medals is 50 pieces. Need fewer than that? Just ask us. We can often accommodate smaller runs depending on the design and timing. Larger quantities also come with better bulk-order pricing, so the more you order, the better the break usually is.
Q
How long does it take to make custom medals?
Standard production typically runs three to four weeks from approved proof to delivery. Timing depends on medal style, quantity, engraving, and shipping location. Rush medals are available for tighter event deadlines.
Q
Can you rush medal orders for a specific event date?
Yes. Rush production is available for event dates that do not fit a standard timeline. Share your in-hands deadline when you request a quote and we will confirm whether rush medals will work for your event.
Q
What is the difference between die struck and die cast medals?
Die struck medals use a die to stamp detail into a flat metal blank. The result is crisp, classic, and best for simpler relief. Die cast medals use molten metal poured into a mold, which allows deeper 3D details and fully custom shapes. Most sports medals and race finishers are die cast. Most academic and corporate awards are die struck.
Q
Do you offer free design help?
Yes. Professional free design work comes standard with every custom medals for awards order. Send us rough artwork, a logo, or even a description. Our team turns it into a clean production-ready file and sends a proof for approval before anything gets built.
Q
Can medals be engraved with names or places?
Yes. Personalized engraving is available on the front, back, or both. Names, places, dates, divisions, and event text all work. This is especially useful for placement awards and service recognition programs.
Q
What ribbon options do you offer?
Standard stock color ribbons, sublimated print ribbons with custom artwork, woven ribbons, and fully custom printed ribbons. Neck drape, pin-back, and specialty lengths are all available.
Q
Do you offer presentation boxes?
Yes. Velvet presentation boxes, clamshell acrylic cases, and standard poly bags are all available. Upgraded packaging is worth considering for service awards, milestone celebrations, and formal recognition ceremonies.
Q
Can I reorder medals from a past design?
Yes. We keep a spec record for every order, which makes reorders simple. Send us the event name or order reference and we can match the previous build exactly, including finishes, ribbon, and engraving style.
Q
How do I get a quote?
Click any Request a Quote button on this page, share your event details, quantity, and deadline, and our team will send back a clear quote with options. If artwork is not ready yet, that is fine. We can help shape it during the proof stage.