The U.S. Mint's "First Spouse" Gold Coin Series

    The White House website includes a page entitled "The First Ladies" with links to biographies of the 46 woman who have held that title.  The folks at the U.S. Mint, however, are a little more forward thinking than their White House counterparts.  The website for the mint includes a special selection of coins under the heading "Fi
rst Spouse Series."  The online catalog offers an assortment of gold coins as well as lesser metals.  The half-ounce gold coins currently sell for upwards of $900:

    It turns out the Obama administration is not trying to make a political or social statement.  Rather, the coins are minted based on a 2005 law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush.  With speculation already circulating in 2005 about the possibility that Hillary Clinton would run for the nation's highest office, perhaps Congress was just being proactive in case the Unites States found itself in the position of having former president Bill Clinton christened as the first First Spouse.  Of course with President Obama's recent endorsement of same-sex marriage, the days of the term "First Lady" may be numbered anyway, and not just at the U.S. Mint.