Grizzly Bear Silver

Royal Canadian Mint Wildlife Series Classic

The Grizzly Bear is the second coin in the Royal Canadian Mint's six-coin Canadian Wildlife Series, released in 2011 alongside the series-opening Timber Wolf. This was the RCM's first dedicated silver bullion programme outside the flagship Maple Leaf, and it set the template for the themed bullion series that followed: Birds of Prey (2014-2015), Predator (2016-2019), and Creatures of the North (2020-2021).

Each coin was struck in .9999 fine silver with a fixed mintage of 1,000,000, a figure that applied uniformly across all six releases. The .9999 purity was the highest standard for silver bullion coins when the series launched, matching the Maple Leaf and exceeding the .999 standard used by most competitors. The 1 oz coin carries a $5 CAD face value, and the reverse was designed by William Woodruff, Senior Engraver at the RCM. A separate 1.5 oz Grizzly Bear coin with an $8 CAD face value was released in 2017 as part of a different product line.

As a 2011 release, the Grizzly Bear is now well over a decade into its secondary market life. The entire Wildlife Series has been out of production since 2013, and available inventory comes from dealer stocks and secondary market sales. The combination of .9999 purity, fixed mintage, discontinued status, and the RCM brand creates a product that sits between pure bullion and numismatic collecting. Premiums reflect this, trading above generic silver rounds but below the premiums commanded by limited-mintage collector coins.

Grizzly Bear Specifications

Complete Canadian Wildlife Series

The obverse features the fourth-generation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt, used on Canadian coinage from 2003 to 2023. The reverse shows a lone grizzly bear roaring in the Canadian wilderness, with the Rockies in the background and water in the foreground, capturing the bear's natural habitat beside streams where grizzlies fish for salmon. Inscriptions read "CANADA" and "9999 FINE SILVER 1 OZ ARGENT PUR."

The series predates the RCM's DNA anti-counterfeiting technology, which was introduced on Maple Leaf coins in 2014. Security features are limited to the reeded edge, micro-engraving, and radial lines that were standard for RCM bullion at the time.

Canadian Wildlife Coin Tax Treatment

The Grizzly Bear is legal tender in Canada with a $5 CAD face value, backed by the Canadian government through the Royal Canadian Mint.

Canada: GST/HST exempt as investment-grade precious metal bullion with legal tender status and purity above 99.9%. The .9999 purity comfortably exceeds the exemption threshold. The coin qualifies for RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) and TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account) inclusion. Capital gains are subject to the 50% inclusion rate, where 50% of the gain is added to income and taxed at the individual's marginal rate. The Listed Personal Property rule may exempt gains when both the purchase and sale price are under $1,000 CAD.

United States: The .9999 purity exceeds the IRS minimum (99.9%) for silver IRA eligibility. The coin is widely accepted by IRA custodians. State sales tax treatment varies. Capital gains are taxed at the collectibles rate of up to 28% for long-term holdings.

United Kingdom: Silver coins carry the full 20% VAT rate. The coin is not UK legal tender, so there is no CGT exemption. The margin scheme may apply to pre-owned examples, and as a discontinued series, most Grizzly Bears on the UK market are pre-owned. UK dealers such as Chards stock RCM products including the Wildlife Series.

Australia: Silver at 99.9% purity or higher in standard bullion coin form is GST-exempt. The .9999 purity qualifies.

European Union: Silver coins are subject to standard VAT rates. The German and Dutch margin schemes may apply to pre-owned examples.

Singapore and Hong Kong: Singapore exempts qualifying Investment Precious Metals from GST. Hong Kong has no sales tax on precious metals.

The RCM's First Themed Silver Bullion Series

The Canadian Wildlife Series launched in 2011 as the Royal Canadian Mint's first attempt at a themed silver bullion programme separate from the Maple Leaf. The concept was straightforward: six coins over three years, each featuring an iconic Canadian animal, all sharing the same .9999 purity, 1 oz weight, $5 face value, and 1,000,000 mintage. The consistency made the series easy for collectors to commit to and for dealers to stock.

William Woodruff, Senior Engraver at the RCM, designed the first four coins (Timber Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Cougar, and Moose). Emily S. Damstra designed the final two (Pronghorn Antelope and Wood Bison). The Grizzly Bear design captures a bear beside a mountain stream, mouth open in a menacing roar, with the Canadian Rockies rising in the background. The setting is the bear's natural salmon-fishing habitat, a scene recognisable to anyone who has visited British Columbia or the Canadian northwest.

The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) is a subspecies of brown bear found across western Canada, Alaska, and small pockets of the northwestern United States. Males can weigh up to 360 kg (790 lbs), making them the largest land predators on the continent alongside the polar bear. They are an apex predator and a symbol of the Canadian wilderness, which made the species a natural choice for the series.

One documented issue with the Wildlife Series and other mass-produced .9999 silver coins from the RCM is "milk spotting," cosmetic white patches that appear on the silver surface over time. These are caused by residual cleaning agents from the minting process. Milk spots do not affect silver content or melt value, but they can reduce collector premiums. Some dealers sell spotted examples at a discount, making them attractive for stackers focused on silver weight rather than condition. Well-preserved examples in original tubes or capsules may command a slight premium above loose coins.

The series was commercially successful enough that the RCM followed it with several subsequent wildlife-themed programmes, establishing a pattern that continues to the present day. The Wildlife Series itself cannot be reproduced: the 2011-2013 dates and the Queen Elizabeth II obverse portrait are fixed historical facts that distinguish genuine coins from any future re-releases.

Grizzly Bear vs Maple Leaf and Other Wildlife Silver

The most direct comparison is the Silver Maple Leaf from the same issuer. Both are .9999 purity and $5 CAD face value. The Maple Leaf has unlimited annual mintage and the highest liquidity of any RCM silver product, with a tighter buy-sell spread on the secondary market. From 2014 onwards, the Maple Leaf also gained DNA anti-counterfeiting technology that the 2011 Grizzly Bear lacks. For pure investment purposes where liquidity matters most, the Maple Leaf is the safer choice. The Grizzly Bear's advantage is its fixed 1,000,000 mintage and discontinued status, which gives it collector interest that the annually-produced Maple Leaf does not generate.

The American Silver Eagle is the globally most liquid silver bullion coin, but at .999 purity (one nine fewer than the Grizzly Bear). The Eagle has a single unchanging design and much higher mintage, exceeding 30 million per year. It is the benchmark for pure liquidity but lacks the collector interest of a themed, limited-run series.

Australian wildlife coins from the Perth Mint (Kookaburra, Koala) compete in the same limited-mintage annual-design space, though at .999 purity rather than the Grizzly's .9999. The Kookaburra typically has mintage caps of 300,000-500,000, lower than the Wildlife Series' 1,000,000, which can create tighter supply dynamics for individual years.

The 2017 1.5 oz Grizzly Bear ($8 face value) is sometimes confused with the 2011 Wildlife Series coin. They are entirely different products from different RCM programmes, with different weights, face values, and design treatments. The 1.5 oz version is a separate bullion offering aimed at buyers who want a larger silver coin at a non-standard weight.

For UK buyers, the Silver Britannia offers CGT exemption that the Canadian Wildlife Series cannot match, since CGT exemption applies only to UK legal tender. However, the Grizzly Bear's .9999 purity exceeds the Britannia's .999, and the discontinued status of the Wildlife Series means these coins are becoming progressively harder to source in quantity. Buyers seeking RCM silver with collector potential and four-nines purity should consider the Grizzly Bear while dealer inventory remains available.