The Canadian Maple Leaf
The Silver Maple Leaf is the authorized silver bullion coin of Canada. The silver bullion coin came into being nine years after the Gold Canadian Maple Leaf in 1979.
The Royal Canadian Mint issues the Silver Canadian Maple Leaf and has two locations: Ottawa and Winnipeg. The Ottawa location Fashions coins for collectors, which are produced by hand as well as gold coins, medals, and medallions. The Winnipeg location produces the high-volume coins, including all circulating Canadian currency coins.
The Silver Maple Leaf has wide ranging production numbers. The year 2010 achieved almost 17.8 million coins minted, which was an immense growth over the previous record of 9.7 million in 2009. This jump in was attributed to tremendous public call for Silver Maple Leaf, as Canadians sought after a way to safeguard against fiat currency inflation.
The 1 oz silver coin carries a face value of 5 Canadian dollars, which is the most of all other silver bullion coins. In 2008, the difference between the greater market value and the lower face value was about 15 Canadian dollars. The difference in 2011 was over 25 Canadian dollars. The Silver Canadian Maple Leaf is 99.99% pure silver, which as of this writing is the among the highest of other silver coin bullion, which have a purity standard of 99.9%.
Design-Front And Back
The obverse, or front features the image of Queen Elizabeth, for which there are three different versions, a youthful version, a mature version, and a senior version. The year of issue and the face value of 5 dollars are displayed on this side.
The reverse, or back displays a maple leaf, the official national symbol of Canada. Some versions carry a tiny privy mark on the bottom half of the coin.
Varieties And Versions, Mint Marks And Privy Marks
This silver coin usually consists of 1 troy ounce (31.1 g) of silver. Variant forms of the coin in the past have included proof issues, privy marks, an altered maple leaf form with an altered coloration, holograms and several varying designs, such as one that commemorated the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Initially a privy mark was a little symbol that differentiated the look of a coin for the intention of determining the mint, or other feature of the coin’s minting, for quality control. Today the privy mark is employed as a design component.
Some of the privy marked Maple Leafs have been available only in Europe.In 2005, the RCB commemorated the Liberation of the Netherlands with a triple privy silver Maple Leaf. This particular variety is the rarest of all the silver Maple Leaf coins and was struck by the Royal Canadian Mint for the Royal Dutch Mint. The first coin produced by the facility and graded SP70 on the Sheldon Scale, was presented to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
There is one part that is standard on all Canadian Silver Maple Leafs. It is the phrase “Fine Silver 1 oz Argent Pur” on the lower portion of the obverse side of the coin.
Celebrations and Congratulations
Since its inception, the Silver Canadian Maple Leaf has had occasion to commemorate a number of anniversaries. In 1989 to celebrate the 10th year since its origin, a 10 oz Silver Maple Leaf was minted. A privy mark was added in 1999 to observe the 20th year of the series. The next year, a firework type privy mark was included as well as the number 2000. At the dawn of the Millennium a Silver Maple Leaf was issued to mark that event however the coins were double stamped with the dates 1999 and 2000.
