Maple Leaf Forever Platinum Coins
Previous articles on this blog already introduced the Maple Leaf Forever gold coins as well as the Maple Leaf Forever silver coins. There is however one more component of the “Maple Leaf Forever” series and these are the Maple Leaf Forever platinum coins that the Royal Canadian Mint began issuing in 2012.
These collectible proof (from 2012 to 2015) or reverse proof (since 2016) coins have the same dimensions (30 x 2.62 mm) and 99.95% platinum purity as the regular brilliant uncirculated 1 oz Platinum Maple Leaf coins. However, their face value is CAD $ 300 whereas the face value of the BU coins is CAD $ 50. Furthermore, the Maple Leaf Forever coins were only minted in extremely limited mintage numbers (250 coins until 2020, 300 coins in 2021).
In some years, the coins were dedicated for certain special occasions. The 2013 and 2018 coins for example were respectively dedicated to the 25th and 30th Anniversary of the Platinum Maple Leaf and the privy-marked 2021 edition was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the maple tree’s designation as the national arboreal emblem of Canada.
reverse side of the 2021 edition of the Maple Leaf Forever platinum coins
Various Canadian artists created the special reverse design that distinguishes each annual issue of the Maple Leaf Forever platinum coins from the regular bullion version of the coins, just like it was the case for the Maple Leaf Forever gold and silver coins. Many coin editions that came out over the years used gold plating as the distinguishing feature like the 2015 edition of the coins that was designed by Canadian artist Michelle Grant, the 2018 edition that was designed by Pierre Leduc, the 2020 edition with rose-gold plating that was designed by Lisa Thomson-Khan and the latest 2021 edition of the coins (that was designed by Nathalie Lagacé) which features both rose gold and yellow gold plating on the reverse.
Some editions of the Maple Leaf Forever platinum coins used additional design-enhancing features like the silver plating that appears in addition to pink and yellow gold plating on the 2016 edition of the coins by Lilyane Coulombe, the use of coloring (in addition to rose gold plating) that makes the 2017 coins by Margaret Best stand out or the selective use of enamel plating on Celia Godkin‘s 2019 edition of the coins.
