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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
A ROYAL CANADIAN MINT INTERVIEW
Dick Johnson submitted the following item about a recent
interview with a Director at the Royal Canadian Mint. -Editor
Silver
activist Bix Weir, who operates the silberinfo web site and is
understandably interested in the use of precious metals by mints of the
world. He interviewed an official of the Royal Canadian Mint last week and
here are some of the things that David Madge, Director of Sales, told Mr.
Weir: Germans are big buyers of silver Maple Leafs, 55% of current production is sold to Germany.
Silver for these coins come from Canadian mines, and recycled sources. The Royal Canadian Mint has capacity for refining both silver and gold for their products.
RCM produces 125,000 silver Maple Leafs each week.
Demand is very strong for gold Maple Leafs -- "we sell all that we can produce."
RCM has increased its refining capability of gold to produce a 99999 gold coin (what the industry calls "five 9s gold"). Previously it struck four 9s fine gold bullion coins and this became the industry standard. "To stay ahead of our competitors, we created a new design for the 2008 five 9s gold Maple Leaf to be released this summer," said Mr Madge.
RCM currently produces eight million silver bullion coins a year. It plans to increase this by two million more bullion coins for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. "Given the present demand," said Mr. Madge, "I believe there will still be shortages in the market well into 2009."
Platinum Maple Leafs were struck in the past, but suspended due to lack of demand. "Given the high cost of platinum there were a great number of old coins being bought by dealers from the secondary market" he said. "We would produce more platinum Maple Leaf coins if the orders were there. A few years ago we introduced a palladium maple leaf and continue with that product as demand requires." To read the full interview on silberinfo, see: Silberinfo Interview with Royal Canadian Mint
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
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