Maple Leaf

The Maple Leaf coin was launched by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1979. It was the world’s first legal tender bullion coin weighing 1 troy ounce and with a fineness of 999. It had a face value of C$50. In 1982 the fineness was changed to 999.9. Prior to the Maple Leaf, the only globally marketed bullion coin had been the 916 fineness Krugerrand launched (initially as a proof coin) more than a decade earlier. The launch date of September 1979 was propitious, as world gold markets were rising dramatically in that era of rampant inflation and geopolitical tensions in Afghanistan and the Middle East. With effective marketing of the new coin, sales of the Maple Leaf in many East Asian countries took off equally dramatically. The Mint was authorized to produce half, quarter and one-tenth ounce versions in 1982 and one-fifteenth and one-twentieth ounce versions in 1993.

In the early 1980s, a number of other mints followed the lead of the RCM by introducing similar one-ounce bullion coins.

A proof version of the Maple Leaf in 999.99 fineness gold was introduced in 1998. In May 2007, the RCM revealed that in addition to launching a new one troy ounce, 999.99 fineness Maple Leaf, it had produced to special order a small number (in fact six) of a 100 kg version with the same design and fineness.