The Royal Canadian Mint’s Gold Maple Leaf (GML) coins are among the world’s most popular pure gold coins, having sold more than 25 million troy ounces since their introduction in 1979. The GML was also the first bullion coin to achieve the heightened standard of 9999 pure.

The radial lines in the new 2017 GML’s field have been precisely machined to within microns on the master tooling to ensure reproducibility from die to die and coin to coin. The uniqueness of the line width and pitch gives this coin a characteristic look, and creates a light diffracting pattern that is specific to this coin.

In 2013, the Mint introduced a new and unique Security Feature to confirm the authenticity of its GML coins. Derived from the same award-winning security technology applied to Canada’s $1 and $2 circulation coins, the GML Security Feature consists of a textured maple leaf, microengraved with laser technology on a small area of the reverse side (Maple Leaf side) of the coin. In the centre of this mark, visible under magnification, is the numeral “17”, denoting the coin’s year of issue.