Maplegram Gold

Royal Canadian Mint's Gold Maplegram

The Maplegram is a divisible sheet of individually sealed 1-gram Gold Maple Leaf coins, designed to solve a specific problem in the gold market: how to own, gift, or trade small units of gold without paying the extreme per-unit premiums that individual fractional purchases demand. Each sheet contains 25 coins (the MapleGram25 format), totalling 25 grams or approximately 0.8 troy ounces of .9999 fine gold.

Every coin on the sheet is a genuine Canadian legal tender Gold Maple Leaf carrying a $0.50 CAD face value. The coins share all the security features of their full-size counterparts, including the micro-engraved radial lines that have protected the Maple Leaf series since 2015. The tamper-evident blister pack allows individual grams to be cleanly separated while each retains its own sealed CertiPAMP-style protective packaging, and every sheet comes with an assay certificate and unique serial numbers.

The format finds natural applications in gifting, incremental accumulation, and as a divisible store of value. Individual grams can be detached and given as gifts, sold separately to raise a specific amount of cash, or used in barter scenarios where a full ounce would be excessive. The Royal Canadian Mint introduced the concept around 2014-2015, building on the 1 gram Gold Maple Leaf denomination added in 2014. Current product groups include 1g Maplegram gold bars, 1g Maplegram gold coins, and complete 25g Maplegram sheets.

Maplegram Specifications and Formats

Individual 1g Coin

MapleGram25 Sheet

At 8 mm diameter, each Maplegram coin is roughly pencil-eraser sized, making these among the smallest government-issued gold coins in regular production. The design uses the standard Gold Maple Leaf artwork: Walter Ott's iconic maple leaf on the reverse (original 1979 design) with micro-engraved radial lines added from 2015, and the monarch's effigy on the obverse (Queen Elizabeth II through 2023, King Charles III from 2024). A MapleGram8 format (8 coins, 8 grams total) is also available as a smaller entry point, with identical per-coin specifications.

The packaging balances two competing needs: keeping coins sealed for authenticity verification while allowing clean separation. Each perforated section maintains its own tamper-evident seal when detached, so a single gram removed from a sheet is indistinguishable in provenance from one that was never part of a multi-coin format.

Maplegram Tax Treatment by Country

As Canadian legal tender coins at .9999 purity from a sovereign mint, Maplegrams benefit from investment gold tax exemptions in virtually every major market.

Canada: GST/HST-exempt as investment-grade gold bullion from the Royal Canadian Mint. Legal tender at $0.50 CAD per coin. Eligible for RRSP and TFSA accounts as qualifying precious metals. Capital gains are subject to the standard 50% inclusion rate (66.67% above CAD 250,000 annually since June 2024).

United Kingdom: VAT-free as investment gold from a sovereign mint at .9999 purity. The Gold Maple Leaf is on HMRC's list of qualifying investment gold coins. Maplegrams are not CGT-exempt, as that benefit is reserved for UK legal tender coins like the Britannia and Sovereign. The distinction matters for UK buyers: a 1 oz Gold Britannia offers both VAT exemption and CGT exemption, while a Maplegram offers only the former.

United States: IRA-eligible. The .9999 purity from a sovereign government mint meets IRS Section 408(m) requirements for precious metals IRAs, enabling tax-deferred (Traditional) or tax-free (Roth) growth. State sales tax varies; approximately 35 states exempt precious metals. Long-term capital gains are taxed at the 28% collectibles rate.

European Union: VAT-exempt as investment gold. The Gold Maple Leaf is on the EU's annual published list of qualifying gold coins.

Australia: GST-free as investment-grade gold from a recognised sovereign mint. No distinction between Maplegram format and standard Maple Leaf coins for GST purposes.

New Zealand: GST-exempt as fine gold above 99.5% purity. Singapore GST-exempt under the IPM scheme. Hong Kong has no sales tax on gold.

Maplegram vs Valcambi CombiBar and Other Divisible Gold

The Maplegram's most direct competitor is the Valcambi CombiBar, a Swiss gold bar scored into separable 1-gram pieces available in 20g, 50g, and 100g formats. The fundamental difference: CombiBar pieces are plain gold bars with no coin design, no face value, and no legal tender status. Maplegram coins carry the Maple Leaf design, $0.50 CAD face value, and all the sovereign mint security features. This legal tender status matters for IRA eligibility in the United States and for tax treatment in jurisdictions that distinguish between coins and bars.

The PAMP Multigram+25 offers a closer comparison. It is also a sheet of 25 individually sealed 1-gram gold pieces at .9999 purity, but these are bars rather than coins, packaged in PAMP's CertiPAMP assay cards with Veriscan digital verification technology. PAMP bars carry no legal tender status but benefit from PAMP's LBMA accreditation and the Lady Fortuna design's global recognition. The PAMP product adds Veriscan authentication (a microscopic topography scan verifiable by smartphone app) that the Maplegram lacks. Premium-wise, PAMP Multigrams tend to trade slightly higher than Maplegrams, reflecting the brand premium.

Perth Mint offers individual 1g gold bars in assay cards but not in a divisible sheet format, making the per-bar acquisition cost higher when assembling a comparable holding. Individual PAMP 1g Lady Fortuna bars in standalone CertiPAMP cards carry the highest premiums of all due to individual packaging costs.

Compared to simply buying a 1 oz Gold Maple Leaf, the Maplegram sacrifices cost efficiency for divisibility. The premium per gram is meaningfully higher on fractional gold than on a full ounce, and this remains true regardless of whether you buy individual grams or a 25-gram sheet. The trade-off is that a full ounce cannot be partially liquidated, while a Maplegram sheet can be divided into 25 independent units without affecting the remaining coins' authenticity or value.