1.5 oz Superleaf Silver Coin

The 1.5 oz Silver SuperLeaf

The SuperLeaf is a Royal Canadian Mint bullion coin holding 1.5 troy ounces of .9999 fine silver, 50% more metal than a standard Silver Maple Leaf in a single coin. The weight is unique: no other major mint produces bullion at 1.5 oz, making this an RCM-only format conceived as a step between the standard ounce and the much more expensive 2 oz and 5 oz sizes. Production ran only from 2015, so every SuperLeaf on the market today is secondary-market stock or remaining dealer inventory, typically sold as "random year".

The design is its other claim. Instead of Walter Ott's single sugar maple leaf used on the 1 oz Silver Maple Leaf since 1988, Stan Witten's reverse shows three sugar maple leaves intertwined at a single stem, adapted from the design created in 2007 for the Million Dollar Maple Leaf, the 100 kg gold coin with a $1 million CAD face value. It is the most significant departure from the single-leaf motif in the Maple Leaf programme.

On cost, the SuperLeaf holds its own rather than winning: per-ounce premiums run comparable to or slightly lower than the standard 1 oz Maple Leaf, around 4-8% over spot, so the appeal is fewer coins to handle and a distinctive design rather than savings. Liquidity is the trade-off. The coin carries full RCM security features and .9999 purity, so North American dealers buy it readily, but the non-standard weight means some dealers look the product up before quoting, and European and Asian buyers may be unfamiliar with it. One distinction to avoid confusing: the SuperLeaf is not the Super Incuse Silver Maple Leaf, a separate RCM line with ultra-deep incuse striking.

Silver SuperLeaf Specifications

The SuperLeaf keeps the familiar 38 mm Maple Leaf diameter but packs the extra half ounce into thickness: at 4.5 mm it is markedly thicker than the ~3.2 mm standard coin, which is the quickest way to tell the two apart in hand.

The $8 CAD face value is itself unusual; standard 1 oz silver Maples carry $5 CAD. Tubes hold 15 coins rather than the usual 25, reflecting the heavier per-coin weight. Inscriptions appear in both English and French ("ARGENT PUR" / "FINE SILVER"), as required for Canadian legal tender.

Security matches the modern Maple Leaf standard. Precision-machined radial lines on both faces create a light-diffraction pattern that is difficult to replicate, and a micro-laser engraved maple leaf privy mark on the reverse reveals the last two digits of the issue year, "15" or "16", under magnification, the same feature used on standard Silver Maple Leafs from 2014 onwards. Weight and purity are guaranteed by the Royal Canadian Mint.

SuperLeaf Tax Treatment by Country

As Canadian legal tender struck in .9999 fine silver, the SuperLeaf clears every investment-grade purity threshold in use, so its tax treatment matches the standard Silver Maple Leaf everywhere.

• Canada: 0% GST/HST. The federal exemption covers silver refined to 99.9%+ purity in coin form, which .9999 exceeds comfortably. Capital gains are taxable at the 50% inclusion rate, with the Listed Personal Property rule sparing coins bought and sold under $1,000 CAD from reportable gains.
• US: IRA-eligible, exceeding the 99.9% silver purity the IRS requires, and each coin conveniently counts 1.5 oz toward an allocation. No federal sales tax; around 35 states exempt bullion and several apply purchase thresholds. Long-term gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28%.
• UK: 20% VAT on new silver, and no CGT exemption since the coin is Canadian rather than UK legal tender. UK buyers comparing tax outcomes should look at the 1 oz silver Britannia, which is CGT-exempt.
• Australia and New Zealand: GST-free in both countries, as .9999 silver exceeds their 99.9% investment-grade thresholds; New Zealand levies no formal capital gains tax.
• EU: full local VAT on new silver coins, between 17% and 27% depending on the member state, with margin scheme relief possible on pre-owned coins in Germany and the Netherlands, which suits a discontinued product mostly traded second-hand.
• Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore exempts qualifying 99.9%+ legal tender silver coins from GST and has no CGT; Hong Kong applies no sales tax, import duty, or CGT at all.

From the Million Dollar Coin to the SuperLeaf

The SuperLeaf's reverse has an extravagant pedigree. The tri-leaf design of three sugar maple leaves (Acer saccharum) fluttering from a single stem was created in 2007 for the Million Dollar Maple Leaf, at the time the world's largest gold coin: 100 kg of .99999 fine gold with a face value of $1 million CAD and a bullion value far beyond it. Five were produced, and one was famously stolen from Berlin's Bode Museum in 2017. Stan Witten adapted that design for the 1.5 oz bullion coin, while Susanna Blunt's uncrowned right-profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, introduced in 2003, fills the obverse against a field of radial lines.

The coin itself was issued in 2015 and 2016 as a multi-year bullion product within the RCM's Maple Leaf programme. "SuperLeaf" is actually a dealer and market convention rather than the mint's official name; the RCM catalogues it without the "Super" prefix. Both vintages circulate in the secondary market and dealers commonly sell them as random year.

The 1.5 oz silver format was not a one-off for the RCM. The mint also struck 1.5 oz silver coins featuring the Polar Bear (2013), Howling Wolf (2014), Arctic Fox (2014), Howling Wolves (2016), and White Falcon (2016); the SuperLeaf is the only one in the group with a botanical rather than wildlife subject. With production finished, secondary-market supply is finite and gradually thinning. That has not yet produced a significant collector premium, but the combination of a short run, a unique weight, and the Million Dollar Maple Leaf connection gives the coin more story than a standard bullion strike.

SuperLeaf vs Maple Leaf and 2 oz Alternatives

The natural benchmark is the 1 oz Silver Maple Leaf: same mint, same .9999 purity, same 38 mm diameter, same radial-line and privy-mark security. The SuperLeaf gives 50% more silver per coin at a per-ounce premium that is comparable or slightly better, but the standard Maple wins decisively on recognition and liquidity, since it remains in continuous production while the SuperLeaf ended after a short run. For a buyer choosing between one SuperLeaf and two standard Maples, the two-coin option holds more total silver and is easier to sell piecemeal; the SuperLeaf's case is the unique tri-leaf design and slightly better per-ounce pricing.

Against other mints, there is simply no direct rival. No other major mint strikes bullion at 1.5 oz, so the alternatives are the 2 oz coins from the Perth Mint and Royal Mint, which cost more per coin and are more standard for trading, or stepping down to the universal 1 oz formats. The SuperLeaf occupies a middle ground that is genuinely its own.

Purity is a quiet advantage across the board: at .9999 the SuperLeaf exceeds the .999 fineness of the American Silver Eagle, the Britannia, and most other sovereign silver. That has practical consequences in purity-threshold jurisdictions and IRAs rather than in melt value. The honest verdict: as pure stacking, standard weights are more efficient to trade; as a Canadian bullion coin with a finite mintage, a design lifted from a 100 kg gold coin, and full RCM backing, the SuperLeaf is a distinctive secondary-market pick at little or no premium penalty.