Break out the plastic, coin collectors. The new 2007 24K Gold First Spouse coins just went on sale at the US Mint today at 12pm EST.
Right now, there are four available:
- Martha Washington, Proof
- Martha Washington, Uncirculated
- Abigail Adams, Proof
- Abigail Adams, Uncirculated
Here are the proof & uncirculated versions, for comparison:
From the US Mint website:
This year marks the inaugural year of the First Spouse Gold Coin Series, the United States Mint’s first coin series to feature our Nation’s First Spouses.
Four, one-half ounce, $10 24-karat Gold First Spouse Coins will be minted and released annually in the order the spouses served in the White House. The coins will be minted in proof and uncirculated condition and are available individually. Each First Spouse Gold Coin will coincide with the release of the four circulating Presidential $1 Coins annually. In 2007, the United States Mint will release the first four coins in the series which include: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty and Dolley Madison.
Martha Washington: The obverse designed and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Joseph Menna, is inspired by Martha Washington’s portrait by Charles Wilson Peale. The reverse, designed by Susan Gamble, United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program Master Designer, and sculpted by Don Everhart, United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver features Martha Washington sewing a button on her husband’s uniform jacket.
First Spouse Gold Proof Coins are available in limited mintages. Each 2007 First Spouse One-Half Ounce Gold Proof Coin is packaged in a custom-designed domed-chest, highly polished lacquered hardwood presentation case and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the Director of the United States Mint.
Martha Washington Coin Maximum Mintage: 40,000 across all product options
Each is one-half ounce of 24K gold, with a face value of $10. The proof coins sell for $429.95, the uncirculated coins for $410.95. You can buy them at the US Mint here, shipping date is current July 4th, 2007, although that will push out as they sell.
They are limiting mintage of each first spouse to 40,000 coins – interestingly, that is across both proof and uncirculated versions, so the ratio could be heavily skewed.
Assuming that you wanted to collect all of these coins, you’d be on the hook for nearly $32,000 over the next 10 years at these prices. I’m guessing that most people won’t go for that.
The hardest choice here might be whether to buy the proof or uncirculated versions. Given the low differential in price, it might seem like the proof coin is the most obvious choice. Aha, but that’s the problem! If everyone buys the proof, and no one buys the uncirculated, guess which one will end up the winner in collectible value?
Comment here if you collect coins… are you going to buy this set? Proof or uncirculated?
Update (6/21/2007): Wow. The coins sold out in approximately 2 hours on the US Mint website. Crazy. I’ve written a post about it, the current prices on eBay, and some of the commentary about it.
Update (6/26/2007): I’ve posted the planned launch dates for the next two First Spouse coins at the US Mint. Mark your calendars!
Psychohistory 
They sold out already. When I clicked on:
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8500
They were all: “Product is not available”
I am going to settle for the bronze metal ones for now. Those are only $3.50 apiece. Gold is going for about $700 an ounce, so the gold content of the first spouse coins is about $350.
Well lets just say, they are selling on Ebay for $800-$1000.
And the waiting list for cancelations is 35,000. I would say it was a success. May I also add that the coins sold out within 1.5 hrs
I also forgot to note that they are no longer taking orders for the Cancelation list.
You are 100% correct. I would never have thought! I’m glad I got my order in when I did. I should have ordered more!
It will be very interesting to see the relative mintage of the two types of coins. It looks like the uncirculated sold out first… not sure what that means.
I need to investigate those eBay prices… add it to my marketplace research saved queries.
Big as a quarter?, big as the sacagewa dollar? or smaller?
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Hi Ron,
The new dollar coins are the same size as the Sacagewea. The first spouse coins are roughly the same size as a 1/2 ounce gold eagle.
Adam
Since the spouse coins sold out so fast, do you how much they will be worth 5 months to a year from. And how about the next two coins coming out. It’s going to get crazy before the of this year.
I writing a new post today with the dates for the next two dates for first spouse coins.
August 16th for Jefferson’s liberty, and November 15 for Dolley Madison. I expect there will be a rush for both, given the sellout of the first two.
Adam
BTW My bet is that the value of the first spouse coins goes down before it goes up – there is always artificial demand around sellout coins at the mint, even commemorative coins. But usually that demand wanes when people realize there are plenty available on eBay, and they don’t want them that much anyway.
Supply & demand. We’ll see if this is really a series people want to own. I have a tough decision to make on whether I keep mine or not.
These baby’s are going to sky rocket. I bought 8 of these honeys and lock them in my safe for retirement.
The mint is taking orders again — for shipment on July 20.
I placed my order and it shows up “Backorered until July 20”.
I wonder if they have raised the number of coins being made or these were some that came from incompleted sales.
I just checked, and the US Mint does not seem to be taking orders for the First Spouse coins. They all show up as unavailable.
Adam
Im interested to hear opinions on this:
A friend of mine informed me that the coins were going on sale and a reputable company was offering 10% on top of the purchase price to buy the coins from whomever purchased them. I personally know of over ten thousand sets bought this way. The company is now offering 25% + considering you can get more than that on ebay. Once all these buyers – who all have no interest in coin collection – recieve the coins and begin to flood the market…where will the price go??? Do you think there is enough real demand to keep the price up?
your thoughts?
henry
I’m not sure that there can be any flood in the market – in the end, the mintage is extremely limited. This firm didn’t create any new sets, they are just buying sets because they think they can sell them for more.
At some point, the price will flatten out when supply & demand meet. I think the bigger issue isn’t supply, but rather what is the demand for coins at this price? The number of people collecting the whole set has to be fairly small given the price overall.
My guess is that the price will decrease as the novelty wears off. There is also a clear “buzz” going on now, largely because of how fast they sold out, and how slowly the mint is fulfilling orders.
My own orders have been pushed to August for fulfillment from the US Mint. Terrible.
Adam
The motivation to purchase gold is generally driven by the pursuit of some defensive financial strategy.