This selectively gold-plated 2 oz. 99.99% pure silver coin is a timely look back at one of our most famous transitional issues: the 1947 Maple Leaf five-cent coin. Faithfully re-sculpted using archived images from the Bank of Canada Museum, the historic reverse features the maple leaf mark that was added 75 years ago, in early 1948, to 1947-dated coins struck after India gained its independence from British rule. That small maple leaf alludes to imminent change: the removal of “IND: IMP:” (“Emperor of India”) from the outmoded obverse legend, which has also been reproduced on this limited collectible that brings the past to life.

Re-creating a classic: The 1947 Maple Leaf five-cent coin.

The 1947 Maple Leaf Mark

After India gained its independence from British rule in 1947, Canadian coinage required new obverses without the outmoded “IND: IMP:” (“Emperor of India”) in the legend. But in early 1948, Canada’s Mint was still awaiting new matrices and punches from the Royal Mint, which still produced all die-sinking tools for its former Ottawa branch. The demand for new coins of every denomination proved too great, so a small maple leaf was placed next to the year “1947” on the old dies, where this maple leaf mark helped to differentiate these antedated 1948 issues from regular strikes. New master tooling arrived later that year, but by then, more than nine million 1947 Maple Leaf five-cent coins had already been struck; as a result, just 1,810,789 five-cent coins were produced with the updated obverse and a true date of 1948.