SPECIAL FEATURES
An enhanced revolutionary coin! We took art to new depths with the first ever Super Incuse SML coin, which is now enhanced with selective rose gold plating and maple leaf field pattern on both sides! Thanks to new technology developed by the Royal Canadian Mint’s research and development team, the maple leaf engraved on this coin’s reverse features an unprecedented incuse depth of 1.5 mm!
A new twist on an original Classic! With Super Incuse technology, you’ll see the SML’s maple leaf in a whole new way. The engraving is every bit as intricate and detailed as previous SML coins, but the extreme relief depth adds a new level of complexity to an already famous design.
Modified reverse proof finish The lightly frosted field and brilliant relief practically guarantee all eyes will be on the super incuse maple leaf, which boasts a mirror-like shine.
A perineurial favorite, that sells out and remains in private collections for years and years to come!
Limited to 7,000 coins worldwide.
DESIGN
Your coin’s reverse features Walter Ott’s iconic sugar maple leaf design, unchanged since the first Silver Maple Leaf (SML) bullion coin issued in 1988. The famous maple leaf has been struck using Super Incuse technology, which gives it an incuse depth of 1.5 millimetres, and now enhanced with rose gold plating. A modified reverse proof finish ensures the focus is on the brilliant relief. The reverse also includes the engraved words “CANADA” and “FINE SILVER 1 OZ ARGENT PUR”, as well as the purity standard of “9999”. The obverse features the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt, along with the engraved face value “20 DOLLARS” and the year “2022”.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
The Engraver: Ryan Poser, Engraver
One of the challenges we faced with this coin’s super-incuse relief was the master tooling. With a standard design, we can polish the field with ease, as the relief is cut in the negative; in this case, we had to work around the incuse elements of the design, which required a bit more dexterity and focus. But with a bit of ingenuity and some elbow grease, we were able to take this iconic design to a whole other level!
The Engineer: Yannick Cormier, Senior Research Engineer
Using the knowledge gained by developing EHR (Extraordinarily High Relief) technology, we were able to go from a standard incuse depth of 0.3 mm to an unprecedented 1.5 mm on this coin. EHR adds extreme height while Super Incuse adds extreme depth, but it’s a similar principle – we just inverted it. Still, we faced a lot of new challenges: there was the manufacturing of a reverse die that included the raised feature; concerns over friction between the blank and the dies (something you don’t have to worry about with EHR); and material movement is much more complex. Fortunately, Virtual Minting is a great engineering tool that helped us understand how to design the blank in order to create this coin.
DID YOU KNOW?
The SML’s iconic maple leaf is the same one that appears on the Gold Maple Leaf (GML) coin – in fact, that’s where it made its debut. Former Chief Engraver Walter Ott (1920-2020) created the design for the first GML bullion coin issued in 1979, and it has since become the signature design for all our Maple Leaf bullion coins and special issues.
The leaf on this coin is that of the sugar maple, Acer saccharum. True to its name, the sugar maples' sap has the highest concentration of sugar, and that’s why this Canadian maple is prized by maple syrup producers.
