The Royal Canadian Mint is now selling a new coin that is in the shape and color of an autumn maple leaf. This is the Mint’s second maple leaf-shaped coin. The first one debuted in 2015 and sold out in two days.
Struck in 99.99% pure silver to a weight of just over one troy ounce, the collector coin has a mintage of 15,000 just like the earlier piece. The last edition, however, was not in color.
"The wavy, irregular nature of the leaf’s edge and the curved sinuses between its palmate lobes are painstakingly replicated through a labour-intensive process, which gives the coin its distinctive shape," the Royal Canadian Mint describes. "The full application of vibrant colour recreates the brilliant array of red, yellow and orange colours that are famously associated with the silver maple leaf on an autumn day in Canada."
Designed by Canadian artist Maurice Gervais, the coin’s reverse or tails side has centered inscriptions of 20 DOLLARS and 2016. Two small maple leaves are inscribed on each side of the year.
Obverses offer an inner image of Susanna Blunt’s effigy of the Queen with inscriptions on the leaves of CANADA, ELIZABETH II and D G REGINA.
Royal Canadian Mint specifications for the coin include:
- Mintage: 15,000
- Composition: 99.99% pure silver
- Finish: proof
- Weight (g): 31.5
- Diameter (mm): 42 mm by 43 mm
- Edge: plain
- Certificate: serialized
- Face value: 20 dollars
- Reverse Artist: Maurice Gervais
- Obverse Artist: Susanna Blunt
Ordering
Pricing for the 2016 $20 Canadian Maple Leaf-Shaped Silver Coin is CAD $154.95, or about US $121. It is available directly from the Royal Canadian Mint at mint.ca.
Coins ship in a maple leaf-shaped, dark stained wooden case that has a viewing window in the lid.
