I've never understood this decision.

Ever since I heard about the series I've never understood WHY the first spouse coins were done in gold. 1) The presidents are on "golden" dollars so making silver spouses makes perfect sense (to me). Making the spouses in gold was a money (greed) driven decision that has priced out a lot of people. 2) by making them in gold the mintage limit was set lower and many would be collectors found that there simply aren't enought to go around at times. Yes, there are the bronze medals, but those are medals, not coins, and silver is just soooo much nicer. Large (30+ mm diameter) silver coins are largely what got me to love coins in the first place.