Overview
In 2007, the US Mint will initiate the brand new Presidential $1 Dollar Program.  This program will introduce four new one dollar coins every year, each dedicated to a former US President.  As an addition to this program, the US Mint will be producing 24K Gold $10 companion coins for the First Spouse of each US President.

Given the incredible success of the US State Quarter Program, one of the hot topics is thinking about how to approach collecting the new US First Spouse gold coins.  This guide is designed to introduce collectors to the new program, explain the different coins that will available, and some thoughts on how to think about collecting the new coins.

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Background on the Presidential Dollar Program

First of all, there is quite a bit of material about the new program on the US Mint website.

The Presidential $1 Coin Program (Public Law 109-145; 119 Stat. 2664) is an Act of Congress that directs the United States Mint to produce $1 coins with engravings of the United States Presidents on the obverse.

The coins will be issued in the order that each President served, at the rate of four per year.  As per current law, there will be no coins issued for living former Presidents.

A complete list of the US Presidents and dates can be found in my eBay Guide on Collecting the New Presidential $1 Dollar Program Coins .

The First Spouse Program
The US Mint will be issuing one-half ounce $10 gold coins featuring the images of the first spouses of each US President, in the order they served as first spouse, beginning in 2007. 

When a President served without a First Spouse, such as Thomas Jefferson, a gold coin will be issued bearing an obverse image emblematic of Liberty as depicted on a circulating coin of that era, and bearing a reverse image emblematic of themes of that President.

The United States Mint will also produce and make available to the public bronze medal duplicates of the First Spouse Gold Coins.

Design of the Coins
The obverse of the First Spouse coins will feature portraits of the Nation’s First Spouses, their names, the dates and order of their term as first spouse, as well as the year of minting or issuance, "In God We Trust" and "Liberty." The United States Mint will mint and issue First Spouse Gold Coins on the same schedule as the Presidential $1 Coins issued honoring the Presidents. Each coin will have a unique reverse design featuring an image emblematic of that spouse’s life and work, as well as "The United States of America," "E Pluribus Unum," "$10," "1/2 oz." and ".9999 Fine Gold."

At this time, the US Mint has published sketches of the first four First Spouse coins, all due to be minted in 2007:

1. Martha Washington


2. Abigail Adams


3. Jefferson's Liberty (no first spouse during his terms in office)


4. Dolly Madison

The US Mint has now released the designs for the next four First Spouse coins, for 2008:

5. Elizabeth Monroe

6. Louisa Adams

7. Jackson's Liberty

8. Van Buren's Liberty

The full schedule of proposed coins is included at the end of this guide.

Collectible Editions
The standard design of the coin will be a 24K, 0.9999 fine gold bullion coin, similar in composition to the new American Buffalo coin.  The coin is currently planned to be 1/2 oz. in size.  The US Mint will also produce bronze medal versions of each First Spouse coin.

The US Mint has announced that it will not produce a set of the first spouse coins.  Instead, they will be selling them individually, in both proof and uncirculated versions, one-by-one as the Presidential Dollar coins are released. 

The US Mint website has begun offering the coins as of 12PM EST on June 19, 2007.  They are charging $429.95 for the proof version, and $410.95 for the uncirculated version.  The current first ship date is set for July 4, 2007 for Martha Washington & Abigail Adams. 

Schedule & Mintage
The US Mint has declared that they will produce up to 40,000 coins for each first spouse, regardless of version.  This should create an interesting dynamic in pricing between the proof and uncirculated versions.  At first glance, it would appear that the $19 price difference would bias buyers toward the proof version.  However, we all know that if no one buys the uncirculated version, that will be the version with the highest collectible value in future years.

Shockingly, on June 19th, the entire 40,000 unit mintage for both Martha Washington and Abigail Adams sold out in less than 2 hours.  The current waitlist is over 30,000 coins long, so it looks like demand for these coins was shockingly high.  As of June 21st, many of these coins are selling for over $800 on eBay, with prices as high as $1000 each.

The US Mint has published a schedule for the US First Spouse coins.  I'm providing it here for reference, and I will update it with mintage numbers when they become available.

2007:  
Martha Washington    1789-1797
Abigail Adams    1797-1801
Thomas Jefferson's Liberty     1801-1809
Dolley Madison     1809-1817

2008:  
Elizabeth Monroe     1817-1825
Louisa Adams     1825-1829
Andrew Jackson's Liberty     1829-1837
Martin Van Buren's Liberty     1837-1841

2009:  
Anna Harrison     1841
Letitia Tyler    1841-1842
Julia Tyler     1844-1845
Sarah Polk     1845-1849
Margaret Taylor     1849-1850

2010:  
Abigail Fillmore     1850-1853
Jane Pierce     1853-1857
James Buchanan's Liberty     1857-1861
Mary Lincoln     1861-1865

2011:  
Eliza Johnson     1865-1869
Julia S. Grant     1869-1877
Lucy Hayes     1877-1881
Lucretia Garfield     1881

2012:  
Alice Paul     1881-1885
Frances Cleveland     1885-1889
Caroline Harrison     1889-1893
Frances Cleveland     1893-1897

2013:  
Ida McKinley     1897-1901
Edith Roosevelt     1901-1909
Helen Taft     1909-1913
Ellen Wilson    1913-1914
Edith Wilson     1915-1921

2014:  
Florence Harding     1921-1923
Grace Coolidge     1923-1929
Lou Hoover     1929-1933
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt     1933-1945

2015:  
Elizabeth Truman     1945-1953
Mamie Eisenhower     1953-1961
Jaqueline Kennedy     1961-1963

Thoughts on Collecting
I've written up some thoughts on collecting the new Presidential $1 Dollar coins in my eBay Guide on Collecting the New Presidential $1 Dollar Program Coins.

The situation with these coins is different.  First, due to their high cost and lower awareness, there is no doubt that the mintage of these coins will be far lower.  That said, the US Mint will likely produce as many of these coins as collectors wish to purchase in that year.  This is different than coins that are produced based on money supply needs for circulation, like the US State Quarters.

As a result, I can see at least two possible scenarios playing out:
1) This series is significantly over-bought in the first few years.  Collectors suffer some form of fatigue, given the length and cost of the program, and thus the valuable coins will turn out to be the "forgotten years" in the middle.

2) This series is significantly underbought in the first year, due to low awareness and high cost.  As the series gains in popularity, people rush to buy the early years, which turn out to be low mintage.

I have been personally shocked at how quickly prices jumped on new series introduced by the US Mint this year, like the uncirculated version of the US Silver Eagle.  It's usually the least popular coins in year that become the most popular once time has passed.

I'm not fully optimistic about this series yet.  It seems to me that a 1/2 ounce gold coin will likely cost $400 each, meaning that most standard collectors will be priced out of this market.  Given the relative obscurity of many of the first spouses, it's hard to imagine anyone except speculators placing demand on these coins.  Still, like everything, there will likely be coins that end up far more demand than supply, and they will likely be coins that initially sell poorly.  So it might turn out that the Jacquiline Kennedy coins are fairly common, while the Dolly Madison coins are worth a lot in the long run.

Update (5/15/2007):  The US Mint has just changed their settings on their online store.  It looks like they will not be releasing 4-coin proof & uncirculated sets of the First Spouse coins, at least, not by subscription.  They have set June 19th as the date for more public information on the program.

Update (6/19/2007):  The US Mint has just officially begun taking orders for the first spouse coins.  They are asking $429.95 for the proof version, and $410.95 for the uncirculated version.  They are currently showing July 4th, 2007 as the first ship date for these coins. 

Here are the images of the proof & uncirculated version of the Martha Washington coin, so you can see the difference in the mirrored background and profile definition.  Beautiful coins!

 

Update (6/21/2007):  The US Mint sold out all 40,000 units of both Martha Washington and Abigail Adams coins in less than 2 hours!  Amazing.  The demand was much higher than expected, and as of June 21st, these coins are selling for up to $1000 per coin in some cases. 

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