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

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

. It is produced by the

Royal Canadian Mint The Royal Canadian Mint () is the mint of Canada and a Crown corporation, operating under an act of parliament referred to as the ''Royal Canadian Mint Act''. The shares of the mint are held in trust for the Crown in right of Canada. The mi ...

. The Gold Maple Leaf is

legal tender Legal tender is a form of money that Standard of deferred payment, courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment in court for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything ...

with a

face value The face value, sometimes called nominal value, is the value of a coin, bond, stamp or paper money as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the issuing authority. The face value of coins, stamps, or bill is usually its legal value. Ho ...

of 50

Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar (currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: CAD; ) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used f ...

s. The

market value Market value or OMV (open market valuation) is the price at which an asset would trade in a competitive auction setting. Market value is often used interchangeably with ''open market value'', ''fair value'' or '' fair market value'', although t ...

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 t ...

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

. Having a .9999 millesimal fineness (24

karat 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 hardn ...

s), 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 the Kingdom of England in the 15th century and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the grain, the pennyweight (24 grains), the troy ounce (20 p ...

(31.1 grams). Other sizes and denominations include: 1

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

, ($0.50), ($1), ($5), ($10) and ($20).

History

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 ...

(which was not widely available because of the economic

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

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

-era

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

) and the Austrian 100 Corona. Coins minted between 1979 and 1982 have a fineness of .999. 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, referred to as a Big Maple Leaf. 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 (), formerly called the 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 German Emperor William II according to plans by Ernst ...

; it has not been found as of 2021. It is assumed that it has been melted down for the gold. The Gold Maple Leaf's obverse displays the profile of the

Monarch of Canada The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is one of the key components of Canadian sovereignty and sits at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Wes ...

while the reverse displays a

maple leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is most widely recognized as the national symbols of Canada, national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by ...

. 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.

Specifications

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. Some dealers have complained about the production quality of the Gold Maples.

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. In 1999, the mint celebrated twenty years of the $100 Maple Leaf coin by issuing coins with a hologram, struck directly onto the coin's surface, rather than as a separate step.

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; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

reached an agreement on Olympic Gold and Silver Maple Leaf coins on August 3, 2007, and the agreement allowed the RCM to strike bullion coins with the emblems of the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

and Paralympics."Maples will sport Olympic Rings", Bret Evans, Canadian Coin News, September 4 to September 17, 2007 The issue consists of two coins – one Gold Maple Leaf coin and a Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coin; both coins feature the date of 2008. The RCM sold Olympic coins through all of its major business lines – bullion, circulation and numismatics.

Individual releases

Privy-marked Gold Maple Leaf

Maple Leaf 'Privy M7'

Other fractional Gold Maple Leaf

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 (coin), mint, moneyer, some other aspect of the coin's origin, or to prevent Coin counterfeiting, counterfeiting. One of t ...

. 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 It was issued at a price of $2,495.95 and with a mintage of 839 sets.

References

External links

Official website of the Royal Canadian Mint

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