The Silver Maple Leaf is issued annually by the Government of Canada. Introduced in 1988 by the Royal Canadian Mint, there have been three subsequent standard editions and several special editions. The Silver Maple Leaf's obverse displays the profile of Elizabeth II. There have been three subsequent versions of the Queen's profile:
The Silver Maple Leaf's reverse displays the Canadian Maple Leaf. This design has remained unchanged since 1988. In 2014, however, new security features were introduced: radial lines and a micro-engraved laser mark. Also the obverse was affected by this. The phrases CANADA and FINE SILVER 1 OZ ARGENT PUR are universal elements. Granted a face value of 5 Canadian dollars, the Silver Maple Leaf has status as legal tender. It has also a market value that depends on the spot price of silver and that normally exceeds the nominal face value. With few exceptions and alike similar international bullion coins, the Silver Maple Leaf has a weight of 1 troy ounce. The 99.99% silver content makes the coin among the finest official bullion coins worldwide. Samples of the Silver Maple Leaf often carry a blemish that has a milky-white appearance, called a milk spot. This happens when a cleaning detergent is left on the coin when it goes into the annealing furnace. The Silver Maple Leaf was originally packaged in Mylar. Since 2009, due to increasing demand, it is packaged in semi-transparent tubes with a yellow lid bearing the RCM logo. Some special editions have tubes with an orange, red, blue, dark blue or grey lid. Each tube contains 25 coins. Furthermore, there exist boxes that contain 20 tubes each.
Mintage (all uncirculated bulk coins)
The issue from the year 2000 was sold as an uncirculated bulk coin yet bears the Fireworks privy mark on it.
It is re-listed in the special privy mark section below but is still essentially part of the standard bullion series.
Special editions
Special editions may, in this article, be divided into the following subcategories:
Commemorative editions
Editions with special privy marks
Fractional editions
Editions with nature-related themes
Coloured and hologram editions
In 1998, marking the 10th anniversary of the Silver Maple Leaf series, a single-issue 10-ounce version was produced. The Silver Maple Leaf, a staple of pure silver bullion, was only produced in 1oz coins. It was only for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the SML, that a reverse proof 10oz Silver Maple Leaf was struck. Unfortunately, due to price and lack of interest, the planned 30,000 10oz SMLs were not sold out, and more than half were taken back for melting. Their cases were also recycled for one of the 2004 2oz bimetallic coins that the RCM issued. This is also the reason that some of the silver COAs will number above 14,000, though only around 13,000 of the coins survived. In 1999, many Silver Maple Leaf coins were issued with a privy mark to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the RCM Maple Leaf Program. In the following year, the coins featured a privy mark with fireworks and the number 2000. Another Silver Maple Leaf version was issued to commemorate the millennium. The coins were double-dated 1999 and 2000. Some of the privy-marked Silver Maple Leaf versions were available only in Europe. In 2005, the Liberation of the Netherlands triple privy silver Maple Leaf—the rarest of all Silver Maple Leaf coins—was struck by the Royal Canadian Mint for the Royal Dutch Mint. The first coin produced by the facility, graded SP70 on the Sheldon scale, was to be presented to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. In 2005, The Royal Canadian Mint issued The North America LEGACY of LIBERTY pure silver commemorative coin set, with two coins dated 2004 and two coin dated 2005. Also included in the set was the first poppy colourized quarter, a Royal Canadian Legion symbol of remembrance, hope, and sacrifice. Three 1oz pure silver maple leaf coins with privy marks were made: Victory Europe Day - May 8, 1945, Victory Japan Day - September 2, 1945 and D-Day - June 6th 1944, with only 4200 sets being minted. There are also special edition R.C.M. coins called the 'Maple Leaf Forever' series, with there being three maple leaf symbols on the reverse. The mint has minted 100,000 of this design in 1/2 oz.9999 fine silver coins and 200 strikes of the same design in a large 60mm diameter.9999 fine gold coin. Many other Royal Canadian Mint coins feature maple leaf symbols, such as the $20 for $20 series, the 'Piedfort Maple' series, the 5 oz silver 25th anniversary coins, 1 oz silver 25th anniversary coins with gold guild clad and fractional 25th anniversary coins in silver and gold. There are also the 1 kg $250 coins 2011–2015 with mintage numbers 999, 1200, 600, 600, 500 respectively. 2 other series noted by argent pur signa include the SML edge lettering 20 coins which includes: 2013 Bald Eagle- 7,500 - Bald Eagle #1 - Portrait of Power
