In our 100 Greatest Women on Coins blog series covering Whitman Publishing’s publication, we have featured a few different first ladies. However, this next First Lady is THE First Lady to not only have the title, but to be on the very first First Spouse coin celebrating the first ladies. Are you still with us? Despite the first of it all, we, along with author Ron Guth, will deep dive into the woman behind the very first President of the United States and her importance then and for hundreds of years after.
#8 – Martha Washington
Born Martha Dandridge in what was then the British province of Virginia in June of 1731, she married Daniel Parker Custis, her first husband, in 1750 when she was 18 and he was 38. She had four children with Custis before he died in 1757. Only 25, she became a rich widow when he passed, inheriting numerous plantations and hundreds of slaves. When she married a young Army colonel, George Washington, in 1759, she took many slaves with her. Washington was already a wealthy landowner, so together they settled at Washington’s Mount Vernon home in Alexandria, Virginia, along the Potomac River. To this day, their house and home are still standing as they have become a national historic landmark to which many tourists visit every year.
By George’s side during the Revolutionary War, Martha spent many years at the army’s winter camps at Valley Forge. She would sometimes endure hundreds of miles of travel to join George, hosting dinners and attending camp plays while socializing with other officers and their ladies. Unofficially, the soldiers would call her “Lady Washington.”
When it came to the presidency, Martha did not want George to accept the position, wanting him to instead remain at Mount Vernon. It was even said that she refused to attend his first inauguration. However, she would find herself feeling lonely and out of place in the first national capitals of New York and Philadelphia. She would then accept her role as First Lady and stay faithful to her duties and her husband. After his presidency was over, the couple would return to their home in Mount Vernon and host endless visitors despite Martha’s desire to relax in their final years.
The only non-pattern United States coin that Martha Washington appears on is the 2007-W $10 First Spouse coin. The obverse features Martha in a hair bonnet while the reverse depicts her seated and engaged in mending her husband’s uniform coat. “First Lady of the Continental Army” is featured above her, which was the unofficial title the soldiers gave her. Other than that coin, she appears on pattern coins that are back dated 1759 but were minted in the 1960s. Those patterns are rare and very valuable. In addition, she appears on the U.S. $1 Silver Certificate bank note and on two U.S. postage stamps.
It is important to note that Martha is usually portrayed as stout and matronly, dare we even say a frumpy woman. However, more modern depictions of her, specifically feminist historians, are reinterpreting her as a young and intelligent woman who is strong minded and strong willed.
Martha Washington outlived her husband, George, by two years when she passed away in 1802.
Collecting difficulty for the First Spouse gold coin contains half an ounce of pure gold. This makes it more difficult to own as it is expensive. A different and inexpensive option to own with Martha Washington is the 1976 Mardi Gras token that features a young Martha on the obverse. The reverse features Venus de Milo.