By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

Osborne employee Ellen Lawson of Price Hill attaches ribbons to coins that will be distributed at the Flying Pig Marathon Sunday. The Camp Washington business has been producing the medals since 2003 and this year is adding beads with noisemakers that onlookers can use to cheer on the runners. Cincinnati Enquirer/MELISSA HEATHERLY

CAMP WASHINGTON - Jeff Harris of Alexandria was thinking fitness when he ran his first Flying Pig Marathon. After that 2002 run - when he received a medal - his mind turned to business.

"I thought, 'Why aren't we doing this?' " said Harris, a longtime employee at the Osborne Coinage Co.

A year later, Osborne Coinage was the new producer of medals for the Flying Pig Marathon.

For Sunday's race, the company is making its mark with Flying Pig Marathon "Street Squealers," solid pink or black beads with attached copper marathon medal and miniature cowbell.

The beads are for spectators.

Honoring spectators with the noisemaking paraphernalia was the idea of marathon organizers, partly in response to spectator complaints of sore hands from clapping more than 4,000 runners on for the duration of the charity race.

"Spectators are so incredibly important to a marathon - how better to acknowledge their importance than to give them their own medal for their support and to let them make noise," said Iris Simpson-Bush, executive director of the sixth annual marathon.

Simpson-Bush said most of the beads (7,500 sets were made) were sold at cost to this year's 60 or so marathon charities, which in turn are selling them to spectators and keeping the proceeds.

AT A GLANCE

• Name: The Osborne Coinage Co. • Located at 2851 Massachusetts Ave., Camp Washington. • Employees: 65. • Makes: Commemorative coins from pure silver, gold, brass, copper alloys and aluminum. • President: Thomas Stegman (father of Jeff and Todd Stegman), whose own father bought the company after World War II. • Established: 1830s, at current site of Saks Fifth Avenue, downtown. • Did you know? Osborne was the only U.S. producer of World War II ration tokens. • Fast fact: Osborne also owns Doran Manufacturing, which makes vehicle safety products. • Phone: (513) 681-5424.

Osborne Coinage, a family-run business, made medals for two of the marathon's six running events last year, and four of those six events this year. Osborne hopes to be sole producer of medals for all runs next year, vice president of operations Todd Stegman said.

Osborne Coinage, established in downtown Cincinnati in the 1830s, does business in the United States, South America, Canada, Europe and China. Its annual sales are in the range of $10 million to $15 million, said CEO Jeff Stegman, Todd's brother.

Osborne's work includes coins commemorating the Baseball Hall of Fame induction of former Cincinnati Reds Tony Perez and Sparky Anderson, and Reds announcer Marty Brennaman; Harrah's casino coins, doubloons for the New Orleans Mardi Gras; Chuck E. Cheese game tokens; Pokemon coins, and coins for Disney and General Mills.

"We haven't done a lot of local business, so it's great to do this and see the impact of our work," Todd Stegman said.

For Flying Pig officials, the biggest advantage to having the medals made locally is being able to afford more of them.

"By doing it locally, we were able to add medals to virtually every event," Simpson-Bush said.

She credits Osborne Coinage for "making it affordable."

E-mail annag376@aol.com