The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 called not only for the creation of the immensely popular presidential dollar series, where four presidents are honored each year, but also for a complementary first spouse gold coin. The legislation stipulates that, along with each president, his spouse is to be honored on a non-circulating $10 gold piece.

For every year since 2007 four new dollars have been released by the mint, approximately one every 13 weeks. The coins will be released in the order of presidencies and presidents serving non-consecutive terms will be issued more than one coin, one for each term. Presidents still alive when their turn to be honored has come will not be placed on coins at that time. Although presidents cannot be placed on a coin until their death, first spouses must be put on a coin in the same year as the respective president, thus first spouses may be placed on coins while still living.

Though not released directly with their respective presidential dollars, each first spouse coin is released in the same year as the dollar, meaning four gold commemoratives are released each year. However, should a president have had more than one spouse while in office, such as John Tyler, each spouse's coin will be released, resulting in five or more commemoratives that year. Presidents with no spouse while in office have a depiction of Liberty placed on a $10 gold coin. In addition to the gold coins, bronze medals will be produced for each first spouse by the U.S. Mint.