$50 Gold Maple Leaf Obverse and Reverse

The Canadian Gold Maple Leaf is the official bullion gold coin of Canada,  was designed by Walter Ott and is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. It is one of the purest gold coins of regular issue in the world, with a gold content of .9999  fineness  with some special issues .99999 fine. That is, it contains virtually no base metals at all, only gold exclusively from gold mines in Canada.

The coin was first introduced in 1979 and has been in continuous production longer than any other pure gold bullion coin. At that time, the only available bullion coin was the Krugerrand, which was not widely available because of an economic boycott of South Africa due to apartheid. Coins minted between 1979 and 1981 have gold content of .999.

Each gold Maple Leaf coin features the image of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth the second, along with the denomination and date of issue, on the obverse side…and an image of Canada’s national symbol, the maple leaf (from which the coin derives its name), on the reverse side, along with the name of the country and the level of purity of the gold, listed in both English and French.

The coin is offered in 5 different sizes from 1/20oz to 1oz denominations and is guaranteed to contain the stated amount in troy ounces of .9999 fine gold (24 carat). The coins have legal tender status in Canada, but as is often the case with bullion coins, the face values of these coins (C$1, C$5, C$10, C$20 and C$50) are purely symbolic and are much lower than their market value.

Production details:

The coins are all identical in design except for the markings on the obverse and reverse sides indicate the weight and face value of the coin. In 1994, 1/15 oz  ( $2 face value) gold and platinum coins were issued, possibly for jewellery. They were not very successful and so 1994 remains the only year that 1/15 oz coins were produced

In 1997, the Royal Canadian Mint also began producing new “five-nines” one ounce Gold Maple Leaf with a face value of $200 Canadian, the highest face value of any one ounce legal tender bullion coin.

Gold maples were never designed to be handled, the softness of 24 carat combined with the milled edge and clear field around the Queen and the tube storage supplied means the coins easily show handling marks.  This is a standard problem with pure gold and the bullion was never intended to be handled but rather kept in vaults as an investment

The classically beautiful Gold Canadian Maple Leaf coins are internationally recognized and the government of Canada guarantees the unsurpassed purity, weight and legal tender value of every gold Maple Leaf. They  provide investors and collectors with coins that can be both a secure and internationally-recognized addition to a well diversified investment portfolio.

The Maple Leaf is 1 oz  coin is a winner, especially when  compared to American Eagle because the Royal Canadian Mint readjusts prices to market changes more readily than U.S. Mint. These coins are usually  traded with premium of 4 to 5% dependant  on the quantity and , with up to 10% with coins sold separately or in small batches. Obviously, the smaller denomination coins have a higher premium so they do not always have the same success with investors.

Specifications:

The largest bullion coin in the world

On May 3, 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a Gold Maple Leaf coin with a face value of One Million Dollars though the gold content was worth over $2 million at the time. It measures 50 cm in diameter by 3 cm thick and weighs 100 kilograms, with a purity of 99.999%. The 100-kilogram coin was conceived as a one-off showpiece to promote the mint’s new line of 99.999 per cent pure one ounce Gold Maple Leaf bullion coins but after several interested buyers came forward the mint announced it would manufacture them as ordered and sell them for between $2.5 million and $3 million.

Maurice Hall

Tags: DOLLAR, Gold, Gold coins, Money

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Gold, Gold coins, Investment, Money, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.