First Spouse Gold Coins

When legislation was created to authorize the Presidential $1 coin series in 2005, which was the brainchild of then Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware, provisions were included that authorized a series of $10 gold coins for the wives of each president as well as bronze medals with the same designs.

But while the portraits on the golden dollars as they came to be widely known were based on the existing U.S. Mint presidential bronze medals, the designs for the First Spouse coins were original. In addition, a couple of these first ladies had previously been honored on modern silver commemoratives, but most of them had never been honored on a legal tender coin since those historically almost always sported either allegorical images of Liberty or portraits of American presidents.

The legislation also required that the presidents and first ladies be deceased for at least two years before a coin bearing their image could be produced, which is why both series initially ended in 2016 with dollars for Ronald Reagan and gold coins for Nancy Reagan. However, after President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara passed away in 2018, Congress revised the legislation to authorize coins and medals for them, which were issued in 2020.

The First Spouse coins are today perhaps the most under-collected and overlooked modern coin series, especially of coins struck in precious metal, which in this case is a half-ounce of pure, 24 karat, .999 fine gold for each piece.

There are 43 different spouse coins and medals with each one produced in both mint state and Proof, making a total of 86 gold coins for the series with a total gold weight of 43 ounces.

Over the course of the series, the U.S. Mint continued to reduce the authorized maximum mintages for subsequent releases, starting off at 20,000 for each version and eventually getting down to under 5,000. And sales of each coin generally trended downwards with some exceptions. This resulted in a number of First Spouse coins having some of the lowest mintages of any modern U.S. coin. And for a time, some of those coins such as the 2011 Lucy Hayes and Lucretia Garfield coins with mintages below 2,200 sold for a substantial premium.

The Liberty subset refers to the coins issued for presidents who were bachelors while in office (Jefferson, Jackson, Van Buren and Buchanan) that use images of coins that circulated at the time are also popular. One coin in the series, the 2012 Alice Paul piece, was issued not for a first wife but for a prominent leader in the movement to give women the right to vote known as the suffrage movement.

Many observers point to the increasing cost of these coins issued at a rate of four per year as the spot price of gold rose for about $700 when the series began in 2007 to about $1800 for the 2020 coins. On the other hand, those who started at the beginning and struck with the series have done quite well since most of the coins they own have a gold value well above what they paid for them at the time.

Others suggest that the designs of the coins, especially many of the earlier pieces are not the best examples of art on our coinage, but that is a subjective perspective not shared by everyone familiar with the coins and likely reflects the different standards of beauty that existed before the modern era.

In general, the Liberty coin designs were met with greater approval as were the designs of more recent first ladies, especially the popular 2015 coin for Jackie Kennedy, who is also probably the most widely known and admired of this group of women who in many cases played important roles in their husbands’ administrations. Sales of her coins were some of the strongest for the whole series.

And there is little question that in terms of impacting the country and world in their lifetimes, no other first lady played a greater role that Eleanor Roosevelt, who was married to President Franklin D. Roosvelt from 1905 to 1945. She is the longest serving first lady having done that from 1933 to 1945. And she was a major political figure, activist and diplomat, serving as the American Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1952 to 1962, the year she passed away. She also famously remarked: “Behind every great man is a great woman.”

Because of this background and the coin’s attractive design by Chris Costello, the 2014 Eleanor Roosevelt coins, whose mintages were 1,887 in BU and 2,377 in Proof, is considered the series key even though it is not the lowest mintage coins, which is the 2016 Betty Ford mint state coin at 1,824 (only 63 coins under the Roosevelt mintage). The Roosevelt coin sells for about a 50% premium over its spot value, or about $1400 in BU and slightly less in Proof.

In 2013 numismatic writer Eric Jordan noted of this series: “The key date effect may get watered down” since there are quite a few coins with ultra-low mintages and the series was likely to perform like classic commemorative half dollars, where collectors pay more for coins they find attractive rather than always focusing on mintages.

The good news for collectors is that today most coins in this series can be purchased at a rather small premium over melt value, often even for examples that have been graded MS70 or PF70 by PCGS and NGC. In the current gold market, where demand is high as are premiums on widely traded gold bullion coins like the American Gold Eagle, that makes these coins a good buy, especially if you believe gold prices will head higher in the future. 

While it always hard to predict what coins will be in demand in the future, it is likely that the premiums on the more popular and lowest mintage issues will not remain as low as they are forever, and there is relatively little risk to buying them at current levels.

Mintages are based on U.S. Mint data.