What is the Royal Canadian Mint?
As Canada’s official mint, producing more than 1 billion coins every year, the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has a long history of excellence. The RCM is owned directly by the Crown Corporation as a government organization with commercial operations. It produces all of Canada’s circulation currency and a vast bullion supply for domestic use and coinage for other countries. Its list of products contains many precious metal bullion coins, including platinum.
History
Canada’s long transition from a British dominion to an independent nation parallels the Royal Canadian Mint’s own history. Beginning in 1908 as part of Britain’s Royal Mint, Governor General Earl Grey turned on the first press to strike the first coin in Canada at its Ottawa branch.
Twenty-three years later, the Canadian Parliament passed a law establishing the Royal Canadian Mint. With this law, the mint was handed over to Canada properly, becoming a wholly-owned Canadian government operation. At that time, the newly-created Canadian mint was controlled and housed under Canada’s Department of Finance. Quickly, it began producing bullion and circulating coinage, eventually becoming Canada’s sole coin supplier.
In 1969, the Canadian Parliament decided to transfer ownership over to the newly created Crown Corporation. Under the Crown Corporation, the mint would report directly to the Minister of Finance. This change, made through the Royal Canadian Mint Act of 1969, remains the law of the land today.
Following this move, the Mint’s reputation for beautiful craftsmanship and high-quality bullion products spread. In 1970, it relaunched its Foreign Circulation Division. This division produced a few circulating currencies for foreign nations since the mint struck its first coin. However, by the 1970s, it began to receive a lot more business from other nations. Throughout the RCM’s history, it has produced coinage for 89 countries, including Jamaica, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Iran, and Panama.
The RCM and Platinum
The Royal Canadian Mint has a long history of innovative processes, security features, and breakthroughs in refining and manufacturing bullion products. In 1979, the mint launched the gold maple leaf coin. Instantly, this coin became widely popular with collectors around the world. At the time, the only competitor in modern precious metal coins was the South African Mint’s famous Krugerrand, minted in 0.9167 pure (22kt) crown gold. The maple leaf, first produced in a purity of 0.999 pure gold, was an obvious choice for those more interested in gold purity than the wear resistance inherent in a crown gold coin. Furthermore, the Krugerrand was often in short supply due to apartheid boycotts of the South African government. Within a few years, the gold maple leaf was outselling the Krugerrand globally.
The RCM would go on in 1984 to become the first mint to publicly release a coin of 0.9999 pure gold, a first.
This success led the mint to add both silver and platinum versions of the maple leaf in 1988. In just its first year, the new silver and platinum coins were widely successful. Today, Canada is the third-largest platinum producer globally, only behind Russia and South Africa.
The platinum maple leaf remains a massive success to this day. From the first struck platinum maple leaf in 1988, these coins are ideal for any collection or investment.
Royal Canadian Mint’s platinum maple leaf coin features:
- Purity of 0.9995 fine platinum
- Produce in various sizes from 1/20-ounce coins with a $1 face value to $50 1-oz versions
- Ian Rank-Broadley’s iconic effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse side and the equally iconic maple leaf on the reverse
- Relatively rare and collectible due to low production runs and high platinum prices
- Produced from 1988 to the present, with a seven-year pause from 2002 to 2009 due to surging platinum prices which rose from about $400/oz. to a peak near $2,200/oz. during this period.
What Makes the RCM Special?
While the Royal Canadian Mint’s products remain treasured around the world for their beauty and iconic images, the RCM is also known for its technological advancements and first-in-the-world security features, as well as coin protections. These include:
- Bullion DNATM – Featuring advanced engraving, laser-marking technology, and precision radial lines that allow approved dealers to instantly verify customers’ products as genuine RCM pieces.
- MINTSHIELDTM – Beginning in 2018, RCM coins have implemented this unique process that reduces “milk spots,” which can naturally occur on silver bullion coins.
- Tamper-Proof Packaging – Now a mainstay in the refining and minting world, the RCM was among the first to sell its bullion products in special packaging that limits the risk of counterfeiting.
- Colored coins – Using high-speed, computer-controlled inkjet processes, the RCM can add precise areas of color to coins. U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada in 2004 filed confidential espionage reports describing the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology." (That’s pretty cool!)
- Glow-in-the-dark coins – In 2017, the RCM released a set of coins for the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation that glows under UV light, or when exposed to bright light and then taken into the dark. These were the world’s first glow-in-the-dark coins.
The Highest Quality of Platinum
Among the first world mints to produce a platinum bullion coin, the Royal Canadian Mint has excelled as the leader in this category throughout the platinum maple leaf production run. Its 0.9995 purity remains the highest in the world, and its technologies for both security and protection make it hard to pass up.
The RCM has a long history of firsts in quality. It was the first to produce a 0.99999 pure gold bullion coin in 1998. Its platinum products remain the highest quality money can buy and are sure to form the centerpiece of any bullion coin collection.
