The United States Mint has unveiled the designs to be used for the 2010 First Spouse Gold Coins. These will represent the fourteenth through seventeenth releases in the ongoing series. Included are two likely highlights for collectors- the James Buchanan’s Liberty coin, which reproduces the design from the Liberty Head Quarter Eagle and the Mary Todd Lincoln coin, which will feature one of the best known First Ladies.

The line art designs released by the United States Mint are shown below for each of the four releases:

2010 Abigail Fillmore First Spouse Gold Coin

This coin features a portrait of Abigail Fillmore and a scene of her putting books on a shelf in the White House library, which she established with an appropriation granted by Congress. The obverse was designed by Phebe Hemphill and the reverse was designed by Susan Gamble.

2010 Jane Pierce First Spouse Gold Coin

The Jane Pierce coin features her portrait on the obverse and a scene of her watching Senate debates on the reverse. She is shown within the visitor’s gallery of the Old Senate Chamber in the US Capitol Building where she was known to have listened to the debates about slavery. The coin was designed by Donna Weaver.

2010 James Buchanan’s Liberty First Spouse Gold Coin

Because James Buchanan served as President without a spouse, an image emblematic of Liberty is used for the obverse. The design is a reproduction of Christian Gobrecht’s Liberty Head Gold Quarter Eagle with added inscriptions. The reverse of the coin depicts a scene from James Buchanan’s youth, when he worked as a bookkeeper in the family country store. The reverse was designed by David Westwood.

2010 Mary Todd Lincoln First Spouse Gold Coin

The Mary Todd Lincoln coin will be the last releaes of the year and a possible focus for many collectors. The obverse features her portrait and the reverse depicts her visiting wounded Civil War soldiers to bring them books and flowers. The obverse was designed by Phebe Hemphill and the reverse was designed by Joel Iskowitz.

Last year, the US Mint offered a limited number of gold coins for collectors, which potentially helped support interest in the First Spouse Gold Coin series. So far the schedule for 2010 coins does not include any gold coins besides the four releases of the First Spouse series. The status of the collectible Gold Buffalo and Gold Eagle offerings has not been confirmed.

On December 3, 2009, the United States Mint released the Margaret Taylor First Spouse Gold Coin. This was the last of five coins released during the year for the series.

The obverse of the coin features a portrait of Margaret Taylor and the reverse is a scene of her bandaging a wounded soldier during the Seminole War. Prior to her husband’s Presidency, she had followed him during his military career to many outpost and hardship locations.

When the coins were released they were priced at $754 for the proof vesion and $741 for the uncirculated version. This was the highest starting price ever for a coin of the First Spouse Gold Coin series. After the recent pull back in the price of gold, the prices have been reduced to $729 and $716.

So far, the US Mint has recorded sales of 2,249 of the proof version and 1,248 of the uncirculated version for the Margaret Taylor First Spouse Gold Coin. This is running slightly below the pace of sales for prevoius releases.

With the First Spouse Gold Coin series now approaching the end of its third year of release, the mintages for coins released so far present some interesting trends.

The table below presents the mintage figures for the First Spouse Gold coins release so far. The coins from Martha Washington to Andrew Jackson’s Liberty are no longer available for sale directly from the US Mint. The coins from Martin Van Buren’s Liberty onward remain available for sale so mintages will continue to rise.

The coin series began with much fanfare, selling out the first three issues completely. Following the initial buzz, sales declined and fell into a new range. The releases for 2008 all have mintages within the 4,000 range for uncirculated coins and 7,000 range for proof coins.

As customary with US Mint product releases, the proof version of each coin has outsold the uncirculated version. The margin is not as wide as experienced for some recent commemorative coins where the proof version has sold more than double the uncirculated version.

Will the low mintages of some coins lead to higher secondary market prices? It has been a question on the minds of collectors of the series for some time. On the one hand, low mintage coins usually attract a premium over time. On the other hand, it seems that nearly all First Spouse Gold coins will have low mintages compared to commemorative coins, negating some of the allure.