Andrew Jackson’s Liberty First Spouse Gold Coin

The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 provides a way to keep the First Spouse Program going when a president served without a spouse. Andrew Jackson is such a president. His wife Rachel died in 1828, just a few months before he was inaugurated as President.

As the Act provides, the front of the First Spouse coin for Jackson’s presidency features an image of Liberty wearing a soft cap. This image was used on the half dollar made from 1807 to 1836, during his time in office.

Reverse Design

The image on the coin’s back shows Andrew Jackson, known as “Old Hickory,” in uniform and on horseback. He is most remembered for his leadership in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, before he became president. His victory with 4,000 American troops against a British Army more than twice that size made him a war hero.

Although a treaty had been signed weeks before at Ghent, Belgium, the news that the war was over had not reached either army. Jackson’s winning the crucial seaport of New Orleans helped to secure the port for American trade and to prove that the country could defend its independence.