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The 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf is the official gold bullion coin of Canada. The Royal Canadian Mint released this coin in 1979 as a counter to South Africa’s top-selling Krugerrand. However, the mint decided to make the coin’s purity a selling point and created one of the first official bullion coins to be minted .9999 pure.

Gold Maple Leaf Price

Like all gold instruments, one of the primary drivers of the 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf’s price and value is its gold content. The amount of gold in the coin - 1 troy ounce - is multiplied by the spot price of gold to arrive at a baseline value for the Maple Leaf.

On top of the spot price, a dealer will attach a premium to the coin as compensation for making the deal happen. On average, the premiums range between 2% and 6%. 

As a general rule, the Gold Maple Leaf is roughly the same price as other gold coins. It might be one of the more economical coins if you are trying to find a high-purity gold coin. Across the board, though, all coins from mints outside the US do not typically command the same premiums as the American Gold Eagle and the American Gold Buffalo.

However, the lower premium may be indicative of slightly less liquidity than the American coins. The Gold Maple Leaf is well-known for its purity and authenticity, but it may be a bit harder to buy and sell than the domestic bullion coins.

Find the Lowest Price on the 1 oz Maple Leaf

Lower premium or not, the 1 oz Maple Leaf is still a substantial investment. So, unless you have ideas about buying coins at the apex of their condition, you should take steps to reduce the price that you pay for a Maple Leaf however you can.

The first thing to do is avoid proof, uncirculated, or other specially designed versions of the 1 oz Maple Leaf. These coins are prepared with the most stringent and thorough methods and are purpose-built for collectors and investors. They also come with higher premiums than regular bullion versions, so you should do your best to purchase bullion coins only.

Within the list of bullion coins, you can further reduce the premium you pay if you are willing to accept a Maple Leaf from a random year. Insisting on a particular year adds a bit of premium to the order, and flexibility yields a lower price.

Finally, it’s important to recognize that the Sam’s Club model also applies to precious metals. In other words, it is much cheaper to buy in bulk than it is to buy individual 1 oz Gold Maple Leafs. You can purchase tubes of 10 coins, and although the total price will be significantly higher than buying a single coin, the per-coin cost will be much less.

We do recommend that you shop around for the best prices, too, as you may find limited-time deals that might offer even deeper discounts. However, make sure that you do business with a reputable dealer. Some excellent dealers include:

• JM Bullion
• Provident Metals
• BGASC
• Silver.com

Description

The story of the 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf begins in South Africa. The South African government had staged a bit of a coup in the precious metals market when it introduced a bullion coin for purchase by the public in 1967.

The monopoly created by the Krugerrand rubbed many countries, including Canada, the wrong way. As gold increased in value in the 1970s due to the termination of the Bretton Woods Agreement, sovereign mints looked to create similar bullion pieces to join the South Africans.

Like many countries, Canada was also inspired to create a new bullion coin to compete with the Krugerrand as a rebuke to the country’s racist apartheid system. Thus, it released the Gold Maple Leaf as its first gold bullion coin in 1979 and minted it in .999 gold.

A decision three years later allowed Canada to make its own historical mark in numismatics. In 1982, it increased the purity level of the Maple Leaf to .9999, which may not immediately seem like a big deal. 

However, the increase made the Gold Maple Leaf the purest gold coin in the world. Though other countries have since equaled Canada with their own .9999 pure coins, the Maple Leaf remains the original high-purity coin that set the standard for what bullion coins could be.

The coin itself bears simple designs on both its obverse and reverse. Unsurprisingly, the obverse features a large maple leaf, the national symbol of Canada. On its reverse, the coin features the current monarch of the United Kingdom, as the country pays homage to its history with the British.

Coin Highlights

Here are a few quick-hit facts about the 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf:

• 1 troy ounce of gold.
• Minted with .9999 fine gold.
• First coin ever to be minted at .9999 purity level.
• Introduced in 1979 at .999 purity level.
• Purity level increased to .9999 in 1982.
• Obverse features Canadian maple leaf.
• Reverse features current British monarch - either Elizabeth II or Charles III.
• Created as both a competitor and political statement against South African Krugerrand.

Fractional Maple Leaf Coins

The cost of purchasing a 1 oz Maple Leaf is not insignificant. Many potential investors may find themselves stymied by the price tag, which ranges into the thousands.

For those folks, there is good news. The Royal Canadian Mint also produces gold Maple Leafs with fractional amounts of gold in them. Instead of the full troy ounce, you can purchase these coins with ½ oz, ¼ oz, or 1/10 oz of gold. Each of these fractional Maple Leafs retains the inimitable purity of its big brother and is minted with .9999 fine gold.

Obviously, the most popular of the fractional coins is the 1/10 oz piece, due to its lower overall price. Most dealers stock the 1/10 oz denomination, and many of them have the ¼ and ½. 

We do want to point out, however, that these coins bear a higher percentage of premium vis-a-vis the 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf. Because there are additional production costs associated with producing these coins, that expense is passed along to the consumer. So, you may end up paying less as a total, but you are going to be paying more over the spot price equivalent than if you buy the larger coin.

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