Since 1979, the Royal Canadian Mint’s beautiful Maple Leaf coins featuring Walter Ott’s beloved design have grown steadily in popularity with collectors and buyers of high-purity bullion coins. With reverses featuring the iconic sugar maple leaf that has symbolized Canada and Canadians for nearly 300 years, Gold Maple Leafs were introduced in 1979 and Silver Maple Leafs in 1988. Struck in 99.9% fineness until 1982, the purity has been at 99.99% pure gold and 99.99% pure silver ever since. For 2023, you can choose from one-ounce Gold, five-ounce and one-ounce Silver specifications.
Over the years, the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has become known for pushing the boundaries of coin design. The Mint made numismatic history in 2018, striking the iconic Maple Leaf series with incuse designs. Relief projecting inward rather than outward provided an extremely compelling effect that spurred many other major mints to strike modern incuse products of their own. As impressive as that was, the RCM was only scratching the surface of the mint’s capabilities. For 2021, the Mint debuted the world’s first-ever Super Incuse Maples, where the incuse strike sank down 1.5 mm into the surface of the coin, creating a steep, canyon-like difference in depth that was 5 times deeper than the incuse strike seen previously—so deep in fact that even after the RCM switched to thicker planchets, the strike still nearly touched the center of the coin, stopping just shy at 40% of the coin’s thickness. Then in 2022, the mint released the spectacular super-incuse Maple Leafs with appealing rose-gold plating.
Last year, for the very first time ever, the iconic Maple Leaf design was re-sculpted in Ultra-High Relief (UHR), by Susan Taylor, former RCM Senior Engraver and one of the foremost artists in the world when it comes to sculpting UHR coin designs. The result shows Walter Ott’s iconic Maple leaf design like it had never been seen before, with relief heights varying from 1.4 mm to 3 mm—five to ten times higher than standard. Last year’s coins also boasted another first, an exquisite reverse proof finish with mirror-like raised elements and frosted backgrounds.
Each of these 2023 Maple Leaf Coins has all those things plus more RCM FIRSTS: the one-ounce Gold Maple Leaf boasts selective platinum plating; the one-ounce Silver Maple Leaf boasts selective gold plating; and the five-ounce Silver Maple Leaf has a special field pattern placed in rings around the maple along with the figure “35,” honoring the Maple Leaf’s 35th Anniversary. The size of each ring gets smaller for a stunning effect, and eagle-eyed collectors will notice each ring contains exactly 35 maples!
Coins and Proofs are graded on a 70-point scale, with a top 70 grade representing perfection, even under magnification. Collectors only want the best of the best for their collections, and that’s what you have here—Maple Leaf Proofs certified by the Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) as being in flawless Proof-70 (PF70) condition.
In addition to being perfect, a limited number of these Canadian legal-tender Proofs have achieved a First Day of Issue (FDI) designation—which means the coins were struck on or before their official day of release—and also a First Day of Production (FDP) designation—a difficult-to-obtain pedigree which means these coins were struck on the very first day the coins were produced. Maple Leaf Coins with these sought-after designations are exclusive, only available from our Scarce & Unique Division here in the U.S.
These Gold and Silver Maple Leaf Coins are not only the best of the best, they’re also the first of the best.
Each coin will arrive certified and graded by NGC with exclusive flag labels featuring the hand-signed signature of Susan Taylor, former RCM Senior Engraver and the person responsible for re-sculpting the Ott design into UHR brilliance.
Striking high-purity Ultra-High Relief Reverse Proof Maple Leafs is no easy task. Mintages of these Proofs are incredibly limited, with just 550 one-ounce gold Proofs, just 1,750 five-ounce silver Proofs and only 8,000 one-ounce silver Proofs. Even fewer of these coins have been certified as flawless PF70 condition, designated as FDI or FDP, with hand-signed labels.
Take a look to see why these beautiful coins belong in your collection!
Authorized worldwide mintages for each of these Gold and Silver Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Proofs are very limited—ranging from a “high” of 3,106 five-ounce silver coins authorized, to a low of just 32 kilo gold coins. Additionally, the Proofs here are perfect, with a First Releases designation.
Seriously—don’t wait on this. Since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, demand has been high for coinage featuring the effigy of Her Majesty, and these coins go a step beyond with a brand new memorial reverse plus the first definitive portrait of King Charles III on the obverse. These coins, in perfect condition with sought-after designations, will not be available for long—especially considering the limited mintages.