Maple Leaf are among the most popular and appreciated gold coins by investors and collectors because of their beauty and purity. With their sharp design, these canadian gold coin is considered one of the most beautiful gold coin in the world.

Gold Maple Leaf coins are excellent coins to buy for investment. Fractional gold maple leaf coins make it even easier to start investing in gold with a lower budget.

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• Gold & Silver Maple Leaf coins
• All gold Maple Leaf coins

Gold Maple Leaf are the oldest and most well know 1 ounce gold bullion coins for investment purpose, after the Krugerrand and the Britannia.

Design of the Gold Maple Leaf

Obverse

The observe displays the profile of the Queen Elizabeth II. The profile can displays the Queen young or old profile vary depending on the year.

Reverse

The reverse displays a maple leaf, Canada’s national emblem. The design of the reverse has never changed since the introduction of the gold maple leaf in 1979. Some security measures were added, such as radial lines and a microscopic maple leaf that acts as a coin fingerprint.

The obverse design has changed over the years, with a new portrait of the Queen Elizabeth II.

• 1979 - 1989 – 39 years old Queen Elizabeth II.
• 1990 - 2004 – 64 years old Queen Elizabeth II.
• 2005 - Present – 79 years old Queen Elizabeth II (Susanna Blunt's design)

Why buy gold Maple Leaf coins ?

A distinctive feature of the gold Maple Leaf is its 24 carats gold purity. This make canadian maple leaf smaller in size compared to 1oz gold coins made of 22 carats gold like the Krugerrand. It also have a more shining yellow colour compared to the Krugerrand or Britannia. However, this make the coin softer and more fragile, because its made only of pure gold.

The canadian gold Maple Leaf is ideal pure gold bullion coin for private investors who want simply to buy and store physical gold. One of the core feature of the gold Maple Leaf is also its very attractive design.

History of the gold Maple Leaf

Originally, Canadian currency was stroked by the Royal Mint in London. But Canada was growing as a nation and with the discovery of gold in British Columbia and the Yukon, it became necessary to refine the large amount of gold mined on site instead of shipping the gold to the United Kingdom. These events facilitated the need for the nation to create its own mint. In 1908, the Royal Canadian Mint was born with its first coining facility based in Ottawa. The Royal Canadian Mint operated for nearly 70 years with only its Ottawa facility. But since the Royal Canadian Mint had to turn to the United States to produce circulation currency for the nation, the Royal Canadian Mint decided to expand capacity and created a second branch in Winnipeg in 1976.

As governments started to issue gold bullion coins, the gold Maple Leaf became the second gold bullion coin available for private investors after the South African gold Krugerrand. The maple leaf increased rapidly in popularity because of the economic boycott of South Africa due to apartheid. Canada was the first country to introduce an entirely pure gold bullion coin in the gold bullion market. The gold Maple Leaf became available to public in 1979.

The first one ounce versions of the gold Maple Leaf were made of .999 pure gold. In November 1982, the Royal Canadian Mint improved its minting technology to increase the purity to .9999 pure gold. In 2007, the Royal Canadian Mint managed to achieve a degree of purity of .99999. Today, more than 1 billions per year are minted at the Royal Canadian Mint.  In addition to its popular Canadian Maple Leaf series of gold, silver, and platinum bullion coins, the mint also strikes currency for as many as a dozen other countries.