Born in 1798 in Saratoga County, N.Y., Abigail Powers Fillmore developed a passion for learning early in life. Financial circumstances forced her to begin working at the age of 16 as a teacher while she continued her own education. While teaching at the New Hope Academy in Sempronius, N.Y., she met her future husband Millard Fillmore.

After their marriage, she continued to teach for another two years until their first child was born, making her the first presidential spouse to hold a paying job after her marriage. Throughout her life, she continued her zeal for self-improvement by reading voraciously, attending lectures and congressional debates, and participating in political discussions.

Perhaps her most lasting contribution as first lady was her work in establishing a permanent White House library, for which President Fillmore asked Congress to appropriate funds. With $2,000 authorized for the project, Mrs. Fillmore acquired several hundred volumes to start the collection in a second floor oval parlor. Here, she enjoyed entertaining such guests as authors Washington Irving, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Mrs. Fillmore also spent many hours selecting and arranging books for the library. The reverse (tails) design depicts Mrs. Fillmore shelving books in the library that she established at the White House.

The daughter of a devout Congregationalist minister, Jane Appleton Pierce was born on March 12, 1806, in Hampton, N.H. Her father later moved the family to Brunswick, Maine, when he became president of Bowdoin College, her future alma mater. Bowdoin College was also where Jane met her future husband, Franklin Pierce. They married in 1834, eight years after they first met.

Two years into her husband's presidency, Jane Pierce emerged from an extended period of mourning after the death of her son. She began to attend receptions and dinner parties, and even organized a few of her own. After President Pierce left office, the couple sailed the Caribbean on board the U.S.S. Powhatan, a government ship loaned to them by his successor, President James Buchanan.

The reverse depicts Mrs. Pierce listening to debates in the visitor's gallery of the Old Senate Chamber in the U.S. Capitol Building. By 1856, she was venturing out in Washington, regularly visiting the U.S. Capitol Building, where she sat in the Senate visitor's gallery listening to heated debates over the issue of slavery.

The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 contains a provision to provide continuity of the First Spouse Gold Coin Program during those times in which a president served without a first spouse. This provision applies to James Buchanan, who was not married.

The gold coins issued to accompany any president who served without a spouse will each feature a design emblematic of Liberty on its obverse, as depicted on a United States coin issued during the President's time in office. For James Buchanan’s presidency, the selected image appeared on the Liberty Head Quarter Eagle designed by Christian Gobrecht, minted and issued from 1840 through 1907.

The reverse (tails) design depicts the future President as a boy working as a bookkeeper in his family's small country store.

Mary Todd Lincoln was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Ky. It was here that she cultivated her love for politics. Later, in Springfield, Ill., she met Abraham Lincoln and they married in 1842.

When her husband was first elected to Congress in 1847, Mary directed all her energy into helping advance his career and ultimately his bid for the presidency. After Lincoln became President in 1861, Mary served enthusiastically as his confidant and advisor. She hosted public receptions at the White House, which she called "handshake days," on which hundreds of people, including blacks, would crowd into the East Room to greet her and the President.

Just weeks after beginning his second term in March 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, and Mary later retired to Hyde Park, Ill. She spent several summers abroad with her surviving children and died peacefully in 1882.

The reverse (tails) design depicts Mary Todd Lincoln bringing wounded Union soldiers flowers and books. She also brought them food and wrote letters to relatives on their behalf.