1/2 oz Devil's Brigade Silver Coin

The 1/2 oz Devil's Brigade Silver Coin

The Devil's Brigade coin is a Royal Canadian Mint commemorative bullion piece honouring the First Special Service Force, the joint American-Canadian commando unit of World War II that German soldiers nicknamed Die Schwarze Teufel, the Black Devils. The silver version contains 1/2 oz of .9999 fine silver with a $2 CAD face value and was produced from 2013 through approximately 2018 with a consistent design across years; dealers now sell remaining inventory as "random year." Gold companions exist at 1/10 oz and a 2,000-mintage 1/4 oz collector issue.

Two features set the coin apart from standard RCM bullion. The first is the weight: 1/2 oz is an unusual denomination for silver, where 1 oz dominates and half-ounce formats are more typical of gold. The RCM has never publicly explained the choice, which likely reflects the commemorative positioning rather than stacking appeal. The second is the subject. The reverse reproduces the unit's spearhead shoulder patch, a red arrowhead with USA stitched vertically and CANADA running horizontally, flanked by a US Army star and a Canadian maple leaf with crossed arrows below, and the genuinely binational story behind it gives the coin a collector base on both sides of the border.

The launch year was no accident: 2013 was also the year the US Congress awarded the FSSF a Congressional Gold Medal, part of a push to recognise the unit while its surviving veterans, then mostly in their late 80s and 90s, could see it. As bullion, it offers RCM .9999 purity at a fractional weight; as a commemorative, it carries more history per coin than almost anything else in the silver coin aisle.

Devil's Brigade Silver Coin Specifications

The obverse carries Susanna Blunt's right-profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the fourth-generation effigy used on Canadian coins since 2003, with the face value inscription. The reverse text is bilingual as standard for Canadian coinage: FIRST SPECIAL SERVICE FORCE and PREMIERE FORCE DE SERVICE SPECIAL. The RCM has not published mintage figures for the annual BU issues, describing them only as limited; the 1/4 oz gold proof of 2013 had a stated mintage of 2,000.

Weight and purity are guaranteed by the Royal Canadian Mint, with a reeded edge on all denominations. The mint's standard anti-counterfeiting measures apply, but specific features such as radial lines or laser micro-engraving have not been individually documented for this series; the micro-engraved maple leaf privy mark added to Maple Leafs in 2014 is not confirmed on these coins.

Devil's Brigade Tax Treatment by Country

The coin is official Canadian legal tender backed by the Government of Canada and struck in .9999 fine silver, which clears every purity threshold in play.

• Canada: GST/HST exempt; the federal exemption covers silver coins refined to at least 99.9% purity, and qualifying bullion is eligible for RRSP and TFSA registered accounts. Capital gains follow the 50% inclusion rate, with the Listed Personal Property rule removing reportable gains where a coin is bought and sold for under $1,000 CAD.
• USA: A significant market given the American half of the unit's heritage. No federal sales tax; around 35 states exempt bullion. The Canadian face value has no US tax relevance; standard precious metals rules apply, with long-term gains taxed at the 28% collectibles rate. IRA rules require silver of at least 99.9% purity, which the coin meets.
• UK: The silver version is subject to 20% VAT and carries no CGT exemption, as it is not UK legal tender. The gold Devil's Brigade coins, by contrast, qualify as VAT-free investment gold.
• EU: Silver attracts full local VAT, between 17% and 27% by member state; the gold versions qualify for the EU investment gold exemption.
• Australia and New Zealand: GST-free in both countries as investment-grade silver at or above 99.9% purity.

The First Special Service Force, 1942-1944

The FSSF was formed in July 1942 at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana: roughly 1,400 American and Canadian troops trained together in mountain warfare, demolitions, amphibious operations, and close combat. The unit fought in the Aleutian Islands campaign in Alaska, the Italian campaign including the battles of Monte la Difensa and Anzio, and Operation Dragoon in southern France. The famous nickname came from the enemy: German soldiers at Anzio called them Die Schwarze Teufel, the Black Devils, on account of their blackened-face night raids, a name confirmed by interrogated German prisoners.

The Force was disbanded on December 5, 1944 in Menton, France, but its lineage continued: veterans became founding members of both the US Army Special Forces, the Green Berets, and the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. A 1968 film, The Devil's Brigade, starring William Holden, dramatised the unit's story for a wider audience.

The coin programme arrived as part of a late wave of recognition. In 2013 the US Congress awarded the unit a Congressional Gold Medal, and the Royal Canadian Mint began issuing the Devil's Brigade coins the same year, while surviving members could still be honoured in person. The design never changed across the production run: the spearhead shoulder patch at the centre, the US star and Canadian maple leaf either side, and crossed arrows beneath, a direct reproduction of the insignia the soldiers actually wore. Production wound down around 2018, and the series now circulates as random-year bullion with the history baked in.

Devil's Brigade vs Maple Leaf and Other Themed Bullion

Against the RCM's flagship, the comparison is theme versus efficiency. The 1 oz silver Maple Leaf shares the same mint and the same .9999 purity but comes in the world's most liquid format with a generic design, larger production, and lower premiums. The Devil's Brigade trades that liquidity for lower mintage, a military commemorative subject, and the oddball 1/2 oz weight; fractional silver always costs more per ounce because minting costs barely change with coin size.

Against American military commemoratives, the positioning differs. The US Mint's military themes typically appear as 1 oz silver or half-dollar clad coins with proof finishes at collector pricing, whereas the Devil's Brigade coins were sold as bullion in tubes and boxes. For a buyer who wants WWII history at near-bullion cost rather than proof-box cost, the RCM series is the more direct route, and the binational subject gives it standing in both the Canadian and US markets.

Within the RCM's own themed catalogue, which spans Wildlife, Predator, and Birds of Prey series, the Devil's Brigade is the military outlier. The closest structural sibling is the 1/2 oz Calgary Stampede coin, another RCM half-ounce themed silver piece from the same era; both occupy the thin market for fractional sovereign silver, where buyers accept a premium penalty in exchange for a lower per-coin price and a distinctive design. The gold side of the series tells the same story: the 1/10 oz Devil's Brigade carries higher per-ounce premiums than the equivalent Maple Leaf because of its lower mintage.