The Silver Maple Leaf has been minted by the Royal Canadian Mint since 1988, and it is a silver bullion coin that is issued each and every year by Canada’s government. This particular silver bullion coin has the very lofty bragging rights of being the coin with the highest face value among all the silver bullion coins on the planet. Its face value is currently 5 Canadian dollars. Interestingly, during 2008, the market value of this coin was actually about 20 Canadian dollars. However, in 2011 alone, the market value of this coin was an amount greater than 30 Canadian dollars. It is a coin that comes with a purity that is 99.99 percent silver.

In general, owing to the fact that this coin is named the Silver Maple Leaf, you can normally always find a maple leaf as its design, except when special edition coins are taken into consideration. In general, the coin is typically made of one troy ounce or 31.1 grams of silver. In the past, there have been some noticeable variations of this coin, usually on a yearly basis. For instance, there have been proof releases, a colored maple leaf that was designed in such a way to be different from the standard maple leaf, privy marks, holographic improvements and even totally varied designs that have been commissioned to honor special events like the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. However, regardless of what special version of the coin is being issued, the one mainstay on any Silver Maple Leaf is the presence of the phrase “Fine Silver 1 oz Argent Pur.” This phrase appears along the bottom of the reverse side of each and every coin.

A few noteworthy issues of this coin have been put out throughout the course of the life of this series. For instance, a 10-ounce and single-issue version was manufactured back in 1998 to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of this coin series. Then in 1999, each and every one of the coins issues in this series were offered with a privy mark to boast about the 20^th anniversary of the RCM Maple Leaf Program. Then, in the year 2000, the coins in this series featured a privy mark that had fireworks and also the number “2000.”

There are also Platinum Maple Leaf and Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coins, but both of these are different from the Silver Maple Leaf. They are different by way of the fact that demand from the collectors produces prices that are a lot higher than traditional bullion value.

The obverse side of this coin features the effigy of one Queen Elizabeth II. It is interesting to note that there are actually three different versions of this design out there: a young head version, an old head version and an even older head version! The year of the issue as well as the face value of 5 Canadian dollars is also shown on the observe side of this coin. On the reverse side of the coin, there is a picture of the maple leaf, appropriately enough. Some variations feature a tiny privy mark on the bottom half of this side.

The Silver Maple Leaf is Canada’s answer to the silver bullion coin, and the fact that it has a face value a lot higher than other silver bullion coins is indicative of the popularity of this coin with the collectors. Issued since 1988 by the Royal Canadian Mint, this coin usually features only a maple leaf as part of its design, but exceptions are routinely made for the special edition versions of this coin.