Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin

Canadian Maple Leaf
Gold Coin

The Canadian Maple Leaf gold coin comes in five different denominations: 50, 20, 10, 5, and 1 dollars, which contain respective 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/10, and 1/20 oz of 24-karat gold. In 1994, 1/15 oz ($2.00 face value) gold Maple Leaf as well as some platinum Maple Leaf coins were issued, but they did not become very popular. Four years later in 1998, the Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin had been struck again in 0.9995 platinum. These platinum coins had the same weights and face values as the gold coins. In 2005, a 0.9995 fine palladium Maple Leaf coin was introduced with a face value of $50.00.

Two years later in 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint introduced a Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin with an incredible face value of one million dollars. However, this was twice as less as the gold content itself, which was worth two millions. This huge gold coin measured 50 cm in diameter and was 3 cm thick and weighed a whole 100 kg with a purity of 99.999%. The artist for this coin was Stanley Witten. The main purpose for minting a coin of this size was to promote a new line of 99.999% Maple Leaf gold coins started by the Royal Canadian Mint. After several eager buyers came forward, the mint announced it would manufacture them on order and the price would vary between 2.5 3 million dollars. Just shortly after, there were 5 confirmed orders.

There were a few complains about the quality of the Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin though. Many Maple Leaf gold coins show visible signs of handling marks, which might be due to the increased softness of the 24-karat gold. But this is a common problem with pure gold bullion coins, which mainly issued for investment purposes rather than for collecting.

You can see current listings for Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin here: