The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf (GML) is a gold bullion coin that is issued annually by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

. It is produced by the

Royal Canadian Mint }) is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the Mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada. The Mint produces all of Canada's circulation coins, and manufacture ...

. The Gold Maple Leaf is

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in ...

with a face value of 50 Canadian dollars. The market value of the metal varies, depending on the

spot price In finance, a spot contract, spot transaction, or simply spot, is a contract of buying or selling a commodity, security or currency for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) on the spot date, which is normally two business days after the ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. Having a .9999

millesimal fineness The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of ''fine metal'' therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy metals are added to increase hardne ...

(24 carats), in some cases .99999, the coin is among the purest official bullion coins worldwide. The standard version has a weight of minimum 1

troy ounce Troy weight is a system of units of mass that originated in 15th-century England, and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 pennyweights), and th ...

(31.10 grams). Other sizes and denominations include 1

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to th ...

, ($0.50), ($1), ($5), ($10), and ($20). The Gold Maple Leaf's obverse and reverse display, respectively, the profile of Queen Elizabeth II of Canada and the Canadian Maple Leaf. In 2013 and 2015, new security features were introduced. In 2013, a laser-micro-engraved textured maple leaf was added on a small area of the reverse (Maple Leaf) side of the coin. In the centre of this mark is the numeral denoting the coin's year of issue, which is only visible under magnification. In 2015, the radial lines on the coin's background on both sides of the coin were added. On 3 May 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a Gold Maple Leaf coin with a nominal face value of $1 million and a metal value of over $3.5 million. It measures in diameter by thick and has a mass of , with a purity of 99.999%. On 26 March 2017, one of the six pieces was stolen from the Berlin

Bode Museum The Bode-Museum (English: ''Bode Museum''), formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (''Emperor Frederick Museum''), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of Germ ...

; it has not been found as of 2021. It is assumed that it has been melted down for the gold.

Information

The coin was introduced in 1979. At the time the only competing bullion coins being minted were the

Krugerrand The Krugerrand (; ) is a South African coin, first minted on 3 July 1967 to help market South African gold and produced by Rand Refinery and the South African Mint. The name is a compound of ''Paul Kruger'', the former President of the South A ...

(which was not widely available because of the economic boycott of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

-era

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

) and the Austrian 100 Corona. Coins minted between 1979 and 1982 have a fineness of .999.

Gold Maple Leaf

For .99999 ( "Five Nines") Pure Gold Maple Leafs, see Special issues below. The .9999 1982 Gold Maple Leafs began minting in November. Thus, most of the 1982 Gold Maple Leafs are .999 fine.

Production problems

Some dealers have complained about the production quality of the Gold Maples. The softness of 24 karat gold combined with the Gold Maples' milled edge, clear field around the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and the tube storage supplied, means that the coins easily show handling marks. This is a standard problem with pure gold.

Bimetallic Maple Leaf

As a way of commemorating 25 years as an industry leader in bullion coins, the Royal Canadian Mint created a unique six-coin set
mint.ca
It was a new bimetallic maple leaf, set in bullion finish (a brilliant relief against a parallel lined background). The six-coin set was the first to include the Maple Leaf denomination. Each coin included a double-date of 1979–2004, and the coin featured a commemorative

privy mark A privy mark was originally a small mark or differentiation in the design of a coin for the purpose of identifying the mint, moneyer, some other aspect of the coin's origin, or to prevent counterfeiting. One of the first instances of a privy mark ...

. All coins were packaged in a black leather presentation case with a black velour insert, along with a certificate of authenticity.Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Coins, 60th Edition, p. 442 Mintage: 839 sets. Other Details

Special issues

99.999% Gold Maple Leaf

The gold Maple Leaf coin was .999 pure until 1982, when its purity was raised to .9999. Some coins are issued at a purity of .99999; this standard does not replace the Mint's .9999 Gold Maple Leaf coins, but is instead reserved for special editions.

Coloured Gold Maple Leaf

Hologram Gold Maple Leaf

Olympic Maple Leaf

The Royal Canadian Mint and the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

have reached an agreement on Olympic Gold and Silver Maple Leaf coins. The announcement was made on August 3, 2007, and the agreement allows the RCM to strike bullion coins with the emblems of the 2010 winter Olympic and Paralympic Games."Maples will sport Olympic Rings", Bret Evans, Canadian Coin News, September 4 to September 17, 2007 The issue will consist of two coins – one Gold Maple Leaf coin and a Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coin; both coins feature the date of 2008. The new agreement means that the RCM is now selling Olympic coins through all of its major business lines – bullion, circulation and numismatics.

Individual releases

Privy-marked GML

Maple Leaf Privy M7

Other fractional GML

Definition of finishes

;Bullion: Brilliant relief against a parallel lined background. ;Proof: Frosted relief against a mirror background ;Specimen: Brilliant relief on a satin background.

References

External links

Official website of the Royal Canadian Mint

{{Canadian currency and coinage Gold Maple Leaf Gold bullion coins