How Much Silver in a Complete SML Collection?

One thing I have been wondering lately is how much pure silver is in an entire collection of silver maple leaf coins? It is quite a large set of coins, so here is my calculation of how much silver you would have:

1 oz coins:
23 yearly coins = 23 oz
11 regular privy marks = 11 oz
12 Chinese zodiac privy = 12 oz
12 Western zodiac privy = 12 oz
7 coloured maples = 7 oz
3 hologram maples = 3 oz
3 Olympic coins = 3 oz
15th anniversary of loonie = 1 oz
2 lighthouse coins = 2 oz
Gold plated maple leaf = 1 oz

sub-total: 75 oz

10 oz coins:
1998 Coin = 10 oz

1/2 oz coins:
2006 Wolf = 0.5 oz

Sets:
15th Anniversary(1+.5+.25+.1+.05) = 1.9 oz
Arctic Fox(1+.5+.25+.1) = 1.85 oz
2004 RCM(1+.5+.25+.1+.05) = 1.9 oz
Lynx(1+.5+.25+.1) = 1.85 oz

sub-total: 7.5 oz

Total:
75 + 10 + 0.5 + 7.5 = 93 oz of silver

There it is! As of today, October 7 2009, a complete set of silver maple leaf coins would contain 93 troy ounces of pure silver. Based on the current price of silver as I write, $17.78 USD per troy ounce, the collection would be worth $1653.54 USD based entirely on the precious metal in the coins.

1998 Titanic Privy Mark Silver Maple Leaf

Here is my newest silver maple leaf! This one commemorates the most famous ship in the world, the Titanic. In my opinion, this is one of the nicest privy mark images of any of the silver maple leaf coins. There is also a very interesting story about the release of this coin. Even though the mintage of this coin was 26000, the coin was sold out nearly immediately. Was it that popular? Actually, a private distributor purchased nearly all of the coins thereby making themselves the only supplier of the coin. Sounds to me alot like ticket scalping, buying all of a rare product just so you can artificially inflate the prices. Luckily now the coin seems to have spread out and can be obtained through most of the usual sources, so everyone can now enjoy this wonderful coin!

Correction to Silver Maple Leaf List

Unfortunately my previous list of the entire collection of silver maple leaf coins was incorrect. The following errors were part of my list:

• The 2007 Maple of Long Life is not a silver maple leaf. It is an $8 coin that weighs less than one troy ounce. This coin is often improperly thought to be a silver maple leaf because of its name, it is similar of the other holographic, Chinese themed coins.

Sorry for the errors on my part, and if you see any more let me know. I strive to keep the most up to date and correct list of silver maple leaf coins.

My 5 Most Wanted - October 5 2009

This is a regular post I plan on doing, where I list the 5 coins that I want to get the most (and why I want them). Here is the first list. As you can probably tell, I am trying to get all of the 2009 Silver Maple Leaf coins by years end and working on the Chinese Zodiac privy mark set.

5 Most Wanted:

1. 2009 Silver Maple Leaf - This one isn't very exciting, but I'm aiming to have a silver maple leaf from every year.
2. 2009 Year of the Ox Privy - Again, I want the 2009 coins but this one is also one I need for the Chinese Zodiac set. Also rare with only 8000 minted
3. 2008 Year of the Rat Privy - A low mintage of 8000 makes this a tie for the rarest in this series.
4. 2007 Year of the Pig Privy - Again, only an 8000 mintage.
5. 2002 Year of the Horse Privy - No real reason for this pick, seems like it might be a fairly easy one to acquire. Probably because its mintage was 25000.

Great Video on American Silver Eagles

Just wanted to share this great video on American Silver Eagles. The guy does a great and very professional job talking about the history, mintage and rarities of the coin. I wish there were videos like this for other bullion coins.

The Five Lowest Mintage Canadain Silver Maple Leaf Coins

You may notice that some of the silver maple leaf coins fetch a higher price than others. Some people think that the older ones are the more valuable ones, but actually it has more to do with the mintage. The fewer coins that were produced, the rarer the coin and therefore the more people will pay for it. So what are the rarest coins? I have compiled a list of the five rarest regular issue and the five rarest privy mark coins. Expect to pay a little (or alot for the privy mark coins!) for these. Keep in mind, I compiled this list with the currently known mintage numbers so more recent coins are not included.

Regular Issue (including all up to 2007):

1. 1997 (100970)
2. 1996 (250445)
3. 1995 (326224)
4. 1992 (343800)
5. 2001 (398563)

Privy Mark (including all up to 2007):

1. 2005 Liberation of the Netherlands (3500)
2. 2004 Western Zodiac - all 12 coins (5000)
3. 2005 Victory in Europe (V.E.) Day (6998)
4. 2005 Victory in Japan (V.J.) Day (6998)
5. 2007 Year of the Pig (8000)

2009 Brandenburg Gate Privy Silver Maple Leaf

Here is the other 2009 privy SML that I got recently. This one, the Brandenburg Gate privy, is to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The gate is a well known symbol of Germany, which makes it a perfect privy mark for a coin commemorating the reunification of Berlin. Also, this coin hand a mintage of only 50000 and was only released in Germany. That makes two Europe only privy releases this year, the Brandenburg Gate and London Tower Bridge, so they aren't the easiest coins to get ahold of since there are usually several middlemen involved in the buying process. For those of you keeping score, that leave only the Ox privy and regular 2009 issue silver maple leaf for me to have all of the 2009s, since I have the Vancouver Olympics and London Tower Bridge privy already.

2009 London Tower Bridge Privy Mark Silver Maple Leaf

Another privy mark silver maple leaf for the collection! This one is the 2009 London Tower Bridge Privy SML, and was minted to commemorate the 115th anniversary of this famous landmark. This was both a low mintage and a Europe-only release, which makes it a nice coin to have in my collection. Construction on this bridge started in 1886 and finished in 1894, and it is still used by over 40000 people ever day! This is the first of the four 2009 silver maple leafs to enter my collection (along with the standard 2009, Ox and Brandenburg Gate) but certainly will not be my last (I actually have another, but will wait until tomorrow to write it up :)).

Yearly Silver Maple Leaf

I think we will all agree that the yearly regular release of the silver maple leaf is the same coin each year, just with a different date (and occasionally an updated picture of the Queen!). Other than the 1999-2000 Fireworks and 2000 Fireworks, of course, which all have a privy mark on them.

2010 Vancouver Olympics - Three Coin Set

Here are pictures of my Vancouver 2010 Olympics Silver Maple Leaf coins together. Enjoy!

Front:

Back:

Canadian Mint Fall 2009 Catalog

The Royal Canadian Mint released their Fall 2009 Catalog today. This year, however, instead of calling it Fall they called it the Festive 09 Catalog. Giving it a quick look there were only about eight new items I could find, so there wasn't too much to get excited about. Here are the new items they released:

Fine Silver

• $20 Blue Crystal Snowflake - .9999 silver with inlaid crystals (31.39 grams). 15000 mintage. A snowflake with colored crystals. Issue Price - $94.95 CAD.
• $20 Pink Crystal Snowflake - .9999 silver with inlaid crystals (31.39 grams). 15000 mintage. Same as above, but with different colored crystals. Issue Price - $94.95 CAD.
• $4 Hanging the Stockings - .9999 silver (15.87 grams). 15000 mintage. An image of children hanging stockings in front of their Christmas Tree. Issue Price - $42.95 CAD.
• $4 Dromaeosaurus - .9999 silver (15.87 grams). 20000 mintage. This is the fourth and final coin in the dinosaur collection. Issue Price - $42.95 CAD.
• $3 Return of the Tyee - .9999 silver (7.96 grams) plated with pink and yellow gold. 15000 mintage. Actually a very nice looking coin, but very expensive I find. Issue Price - $54.95 CAD.

Sterling Silver

• $15 Queen Elizabeth II - 30.0 grams. 10000 mintage. Queen Elizabeth on both the front and the back. Issue Price - Coming Soon.

Gold

• $150 Lunar Year of the Tiger - .75 gold and .25 silver (11.84 grams). 4888 mintage. 11th coin in the zodiac series. Issue Price - 638.88 CAD.

Other

• 50 cent Holiday Toy Train - Made of brass and steel. Unlimited mintage. Colored image of a toy train. Issue Price - $25.95 CAD.

Personally, the only ones I would be interested in would be the gold or silver coins. Even then, I find the coins far too expensive. For example, with the gold coin you are getting about $290 worth of gold, so you are paying almost $350 extra for the coin. With that much of a markup, I would need to really like the design (but I don't like it that much!). Have any of you bought, or are thinking to buy, any of these?