Your Guide to Maple Leaf Gold Coins

The Canadian Maple Leafs were minted by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1979. The one ounce Canadian Maple Leaf gold bullion coin was introduced as an alternative to the well established South African Krugerrand as both a response to the public’s demand for a way to collect and invest in gold and also as a statement against the apartheid policy in South Africa.

Demand for gold as an investment and hedge against inflation was clearly evident when the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin made its debut in 1979. The spot price of gold spiked dramatically from $220 per ounce to over $600 per ounce in the Gold Maple Leaf’s first year of availability.

One of the unique features of the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin is that it was the first gold coin that is pure gold and does not rely on any other alloys or base metals for strength. When it was minted in 1979, the 1 ounce Maple Leaf was .999 pure gold. Up until that point, investors or collectors of gold had to settle for the 22 karat gold purity of the Krugerrand. With 22 karat gold, there is a 91.6% gold purity and the remainder is either silver or some less valuable metals that serve to strengthen the alloy and make it more suitable as a circulated coin.

The Canadian Royal Mint realized that gold coins very rarely circulate as currency and are almost exclusively used as an investment vehicle or, to a lesser degree, as a numismatic collectible coin. With the overwhelming majority of coins not exposed to the wear and tear of common circulated coins, they decided that making a coin of pure gold would be popular amongst those looking for pure bullion value. The Canadian Maple Leaf gold bullion, created exclusively from the gold mines in Canada, is as close as you can get to pure gold anywhere in the world.

The design of the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin features a single maple leaf, Canada’s national symbol, on one side and an image of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse side. Up until 1982, only a one ounce coin was minted and it had a face value of $50. In subsequent years, investment coins were also minted in different weights and with different denominations. A 1/2 ounce coin had a face value of $20 and there were also coins made in 1/4 ounce, 1/10 ounce and 1/20 ounce weights with denominations respectively of $10, $5 and $1 increments. In 1994, a 1/15 ounce Maple Leaf was minted, but it did not do well and was only minted for that one year.

In November of 1982, the Canadian Royal Mint increased the gold purity of the Canadian Maple Leaf coin to a purity level of .9999. The new higher gold purity has remained the standard to this day.

The rarest of Canadian Gold Maple Leaf was part of a special issue in 2007. A one million dollar coin weighing 100 kg was designed by Stanley Witten. Just 5 were minted. At today’s gold prices of around $1400 per ounce, the million dollar coin has a spot value of nearly $5 million dollars.

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