Posts Tagged ‘Martha Washington’

Martha Washington Proof

First Spouse Martha Washington $10 Gold First Lady, 1789–1797

Again this coin was sold out from the mint in 3 hours, this is the first “first spouse coin” coin to come out from the mint.

About the Coin:

Martha Washington First Spouse $10 Gold Coin
First Lady, 1789–1797

Born Martha Dandridge on June 2, 1731, the future First Lady of the United States married Daniel Parke Custis when she was 18 years old, and was a mother of two surviving children when her first husband died in 1757.  She married George Washington two years later, and for much of the next 40 years, Martha Washington fulfilled her role of a military and political wife with ease and grace.

She and husband George retired from public life at the end of his second term as President, and lived out their lives at Mount Vernon, not far from the capital city that would soon bear their name.

Reverse Design

The reverse design of the Martha Washington coin depicts the future First Lady sewing a button onto her husband’s uniform jacket.  During the Revolutionary War, her concern for the colonial soldiers earned her their lasting respect and admiration.  She is known to have organized sick wards and persuaded the society ladies of Morristown to roll bandages from their fine napkins and tablecloths, as well as to repair uniforms and knit shirts for the poorly equipped Continental soldiers.  Her presence in the encampments of the Continental Army was an example to other officer's wives and a significant factor in lifting the morale of her husband's tired, cold and hungry troops.

Martha Washington Uncirculated

The uncirculated version of first spouse Martha Washington the First First Spouse of this great country, I will show under here the prices on coins live right now on E-bay to give people an idea of the price movement of each coin.

Martha Washington First Spouse BU Gold Coin

gold spouse coin

Here are the new release mintage of the First Spouse $10 gold spouse coin, these numbers will change over time and I will publish new numbers. As you can see the coins are not selling as well as the mint thought. That should be a buying opportunity for collectors as the value of these coins with lower population numbers should go up faster.

First Spouse                                      UNC.                               Proof

gold coins first spouse

According to an article in the March 10, 2008 issue of Coin World, thousands of First Spouse Gold Coins have been melted. While this has implications about current demand for the series, it also has implications about the future of the series.

The coins were melted by SilverTowne, a coin dealer and private mint. According to the article, SilverTowne has melted between 5,000 and 7,000 Martha Washington and Louisa Adams coins, including both proof and uncirculated versions. An unspecified number of Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty coins were also melted. In addition, the firm has melted thousands of other recently issued gold commemoratives coins.

According to the president of SilverTowne, the coins were melted after his firm identified little or no retail demand.

I think it’s actually quite saddening that SilverTowne would choose to melt these coins. If they had offered them for sale at melt value prices, I think they would have readily found buyers to deplete their entire inventory. From the firm’s perspective this would have accomplished the same task of liquidating the inventory at the prevailing price of gold without destroying the coins.

As for the implications of the melt, in the short term it seems to indicate a lack of short term demand. In my opinion there is plenty of demand for the coins, as evidenced by the dozens that sell each day on eBay for prices well above the melt value. Perhaps there was just not the kind of bulk demand needed to quickly sell thousands of the coins.

As for the future implications of the melt, a single source has just removed almost 10% of the entire mintage. Mintage figures for these coins will be misleading future collectors, who may find the coins are more scarce than the mintages indicate.

Secondly, the early speculative demand of the series is probably at an end, but this might be a good thing. SilverTowne’s purchases of thousands of the coins no doubt helped fuel the demand. With them and other similar speculators out of the picture, future issues may end up with significantly lower mintages. Eventually there might be super low mintage coins like the Jackie Robinson Gold Commemorative which become worth far more than their weight in gold.

The First Spouse Gold Series is a marathon, not a sprint. It is currently scheduled to run for ten more years. While early speculation has dissolved, I am sure the future has many surprises left in store.

Original Article: http://firstspousegold.us/blog/thousands-of-first-spouse-gold-coins-melted/

Martha Washington First Spouse BU Gold Coin