The 2005 law behind the Presidential dollars, the Presidential $1 Coin Act, also ordered a gold coin for the spouse of each president honored, issued on the same schedule as his dollar. Each is a half-ounce coin of .9999 fine gold with a $10 face value, showing the first spouse on the obverse, with her name, the years and number of her term, and a reverse scene from her life or work. The Mint launched the series at noon on June 19, 2007 with Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, and sold each design as a proof and as an uncirculated coin, both struck at West Point with a W.
When a president served without a spouse, the law asked for Liberty as she appeared on a coin of his time. Four coins follow that rule, for Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, who were widowers when they took office, and for James Buchanan, who never married. For Chester Arthur, also a widower, the law named instead Alice Paul, the suffrage leader born during his term.
The program reached Nancy Reagan in 2016 and then ended, together with the Presidential dollars it follows. A separate law, Public Law 116-112, added a 2020 coin for Barbara Bush, who had died in April 2018, alongside a George H.W. Bush dollar. The Mint also sells bronze medal copies of the designs, which are not legal tender.
