Item #: 20081

Following the success of the maple leaf gold bullion coins introduced in 1979, the Royal Canadian Mint started in 1988 to produce a one ounce silver maple leaf coin. As with the gold version which are struck in fine gold, the silver maples are struck in fine silver with a purity of 99.99%. The concept of the one ounce bullion coin was to provide an easy way to purchase convenient small quantities of bullion silver in the form of coins. Additionally, the new one ounce coins, are an attractive design, made to appeal to collectors. The denomination, or face value, is five dollars Canadian. First Portrait For the 1988 and 1989 issues, the portrait used is the "decimal portrait" as used on British decimal coins since 1971. Second Portrait From 1990 onwards, the portrait was changed to one similar to that used on British coins from 1985 to 1997. New Portrait from 2004 The Royal Canadian Mint produced a new portrait of the Queen for the 2004 issue. This time we have managed to get a good photograph of these silver maples, the striation lines from polishing the dies always shows up much worse on a photo than on the actual coin.