On November 25, 2008, the United States Mint released the new Martin Van Buren’s Liberty First Spouse Gold Coins. This marks the fourth and final release for the series during 2008 and the eighth release for the series overall.

The coins are priced at $549.95 for the proof version and $524.95 for the uncirculated version. The maximum mintage for the coins will be 40,000. There is an initial ordering limit of 10 coins per household.

The coin obverse features the design of the Liberty Seated Dime created by Christian Gobrecht. This classic design was used since Van Buren did not have a spouse while in office. The coin reverse features a depiction of a young Van Buren sitting under a tree reading. He is placed near the family operated tavern in Kinderhook, New York.

Previous First Spouse Gold coins to use classic designs included Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty and Andrew Jacskson’s Liberty.

Notably, when the Van Buren coins went on sale, the Dolley Madison coins went off sale. It seems that the US Mint will only sell each release of the First Spouse Gold Coin program until it sells out or for one year after release. Many collectors had been wondering how long coins that do not sell out would remain available for sale.

In an unexpected move, the United States Mint has lowered prices for the majority of the available First Spouse Gold Coins. The price reduction comes after a decline of more than 20% for gold from its peak price above $1,000 per ounce reached earlier this year. Since each First Spouse Coin contains one-half ounce of gold, the price of the precious metal has a big impact of the value of the coins.

Before the price change, the most recent three releases for Andrew Jackson’s Liberty, Louisa Adams, and Elizabeth Monroe were priced at $619.95 for each proof coin and $599.95 for each uncirculated coin. The new prices are $549.95 for proof coins and $529.95 for uncirculated coins. This represents a reduction of $70 and $75 dollars for proof and uncirculated coins, respectively.

The final release of 2007 for Dolley Madison was priced lower at $529.95 for proof coins and $509.95 for uncirculated coins. Because this price was already below the reduced price level, prices were not adjusted for the Dolley Madison coins.

The price changes were not announced or explained. The US Mint simply marked the coins as “not available” on Wednesday of last week, and then brought the coins back the next day at Noon at the lower prices.