Collectible Challenge Coin: Design a Triquetra Trinity Knot Two Ways

Craft Your First Collectible Challenge Coin

A Trinity-Knot Design—Two Creative Paths

Have you ever held a challenge coin and felt the weight of its story? Today we’ll make one of our own, featuring the timeless triquetra, or Trinity Knot. Grab a compass, ruler, and pencil (or fire up your onshape CAD software) and let’s turn an ancient symbol into a pocket-sized piece of art.

What is the Triquetra design?

From the Latin triquetrus—“three-cornered”—this interwoven knot dates back to at least the 7th century. Pagans saw it as a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, Christians embraced it as a symbol of the Trinity. Today the design shows up everywhere from Celtic jewelry to pop-culture tattoos, and, now, on your very own challenge coin.

Fun fact: Because the arcs never break, craftsmen often call the triquetra “the knot with no end,” making it a perfect emblem for unity or lifelong achievement.

More history at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triquetra. 

Method 1: Drafting the Triquetra By Hand

Old-school tools are satisfying!

Method 2: Modeling the Triquetra in CAD

Prefer pixels to pencil dust? Fire up Onshape (or any parametric CAD) and follow along with our screen-share video tutorial: