First Spouse Gold Coins Program

The First Spouse Gold Coin program came into existence when the first spouse gold coins featuring Martha Washington, Abigail James, Lady Liberty for Thomas Jefferson, and Dolley Madison was authorized by the United States of America. Both the Presidents and their first spouse’s gold coins were circulated at the same time under the 2005 Presidential $1 Coin Act as explicitly stated. In cases such of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, who took the Presidential office without a spouse, their first spouse gold coins were depicted with the portrait of Lady Liberty.

The First Spouse Gold Coins or also known as the First Spouse Gold Coin Program is the series of the United States’ Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 as a way of the United States to honour the spouses of their Presidents. This program started in the beginning of 2007 where the first batch of spouses were immortalized on a $1 gold coin design that features their portraits, names and also their terms living as the first spouses.

The designs of the coins were not without their own significance. The obverse side or the head side of the coins feature the portrait of the first spouse, their name, the President’s term in the office and the marking or lettering of “IN GOD WE TRUST”. However, the reverse side of the coin bears the theme of the first spouse, portraying the life of the lady herself. “U PLURIBUS UNUM” or the one out of many, “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”, “$10”, “½ oz”, and the ”.9999 Fine Gold” were also emblem on the reverse of the coins. To honour the first spouses, the government of the United States has issued one-half ounce of 24 karat gold to make the coins with the face value of $10 each.

The first four First Spouse Gold Coin collections were made officially available to public on 19th June 2007 at 12 pm EDT. The coins were provided with two versions which are the coin proof version and the uncirculated version. Although the designs were similar, both coins were selling at a whopping $429.95 and $410.95 respectively during the early days of their circulation. The first spouse gold coins will release only four personalities per year. Up until now, there are 14 officially circulated first spouse gold coins series with nine first spouse gold coins released in 2008 and 2009. The latest gold coin first spouse is Abigail Fillmore, the spouse of President Millard Fillmore who took the Presidency for a year starting from 1850 to 1853.

According to recent reports, the United States Mint is planning to make a price hike for the First Spouse Gold Coins from $10 to $25 if needed, and each coin could fetch around $691-$704 for uncirculated and proof coins if sold. The reason being that the US Mint wants to align the coin prices with the recent jump in gold prices. The gold price hike also saw that the increase of melting down the first spouse gold coins as the value of gold is on the up.

The First Spouse Gold Coins has a feature that is slightly bigger that the current US quarter but their diameter is the same as the $1 Presidential coin. Each of the first spouse gold coins has its own Certificate of Authenticity and the signature of the Director. There are, however, the duplicates of the First Spouse Gold Coins in the form of the First Spouse Bronze Medals that were also issued by the US Mint. Unfortunately, the bronze medals do not have the denomination as well as the mintage date as they were not included in the design but the name of the first spouse remains as well as the term of the President.

The First Spouse Gold Coins collection is indeed an interesting hobby to have. If you know someone who is into the first spouse gold coins collection, you can always set aside some budget to look for these coins and give it as a Christmas exchange presents.

Coin auctions on eBay