BY CHELYEN DAVIS

A local firm has won a spot on a national list of fast-growing companies.

Coins for Anything, based in Stafford, is on the Inc. 5000, a list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the country. It's compiled by Inc., a magazine aimed at entrepreneurs, and companies must apply to be on the list.

Coins for Anything makes commemorative coins. They're popular in the military, but owner and founder Jeffery Morin said companies have started using them too, handing them out to employees to reward service or other things. Coins for Anything also makes coins for the Marine Corps Marathon, and Morin said the company has landed clients as large as Target and American Airlines.

Morin started the company in 2004, while he was in the Marine Corps. He'd been selling coins on eBay, he said, when someone asked him for a coin for Marine mothers.

Morin was surprised that he couldn't find one, so he designed one. He sold 100 in hours, he said, and a second batch of 500 sold out in three days.

Then a friend asked him to design a coin for the friend's unit. The unit ordered 500 of them.

That is when Morin "realized the business that was in the custom aspect of it as well."

He said he also had noticed a wide disparity in the quality of coins. Some were thinner and of lesser quality. Morin said his company is the only one with a 3.5 mm standard of thickness for coins, which allows for deeper engraving.

The company designs the coin for a customer, although the coins are actually made elsewhere. Each coin requires that a new mold be made for the solid-brass coins; other details, like gold or silver platings, are added to the initial brass coin.

Coins for Anything does 1,500 to 2,000 unique designs a year, Morin said.

Morin said "challenge coins" are a military tradition, going back to World War II. Officers will give them to soldiers, as thank-yous or to boost morale.

But recently, Morin said, "we've really seen the market shift to very heavy usage inside the corporate sector." Companies are giving out commemorative coins for movie premieres, real estate and other uses.

That may help explain why a company Morin started just five years ago is now growing fast enough to be put on the Inc. 5000 list.

"It's definitely a lot bigger than I ever would have imagined it being," Morin said. "When I first got out of the Corps it was out of my mother's basement for two years."

To win a spot on the Inc. 5000 list, Morin had to apply, sending Inc. an application plus records of Coins for Anything's sales for 2005 through 2008.

Coins for Anything is number 1,518 on the list, with 210 percent revenue growth between 2005 and 2008. The company reported $2.8 million in revenue in 2008.

"It was exciting for us. It was the first time we've ever been recognized as a business nationally," Morin said. "I was surprised the number we were."

Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com