The Royal Canadian Mint’s August releases span everything from vivid Maple Leaf designs and prehistoric giants to Canadian wildlife, historic coinage and the 2027 Lunar Year of the Goat.
Among the most visually distinctive releases are two 2026 Maple Leaf coins featuring the Mint’s new “vivid toning effect.” The $20 Fine silver and $200 pure gold coins pair Walter Ott’s familiar Maple Leaf with ultra-high relief and an iridescent treatment designed to make the colour appear illuminated from within. The silver version uses yellow, orange and red tones reminiscent of an autumn forest, while the gold coin emphasizes crimson. Mintages are 11,000 and 550, respectively.
Another technology-driven release ventures millions of years into the past. A 2026 Fine silver $20 coin by paleoartist Julius Csotonyi depicts Tyrannosaurus rex and Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Under ordinary lighting, collectors see the prehistoric animals as they may have appeared in life, but an included black-light flashlight reveals their fossilized forms through the use of black-light paint technology. The Proof coin has a mintage of 8,500.
The Mint is also looking ahead to the 2027 Lunar Year of the Goat with three coins ranging from a one-ounce silver $15 piece to a massive one-kilogram pure gold $2,500 coin. The latter weighs 1,006.1 grams, measures 101.6 mm and has a worldwide mintage of only 66. A $100 pure gold coin, limited to 1,888 pieces, completes the trio.
Canadian numismatic history is revisited through a four-piece 2027 pure gold fractional set marking the 125th anniversary of the coronation of King Edward VII. Inspired by Canada’s 1902 coinage, the set includes one-ounce, quarter-ounce, one-10th-ounce and one-20th-ounce coins, all double-dated “1902 2027.” Only 400 sets will be available worldwide. Elsewhere, Canadian wildlife takes flight on a $20 Fine silver coin featuring Canada jays, while Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan is showcased on the third release in the Mint’s 2026 National Parks series.
At the opposite end of the size spectrum from the kilogram Goat coin is the 2027 “Iconic Maple Leaf” $1, a 0.5-gram pure gold coin measuring just 11 mm. The August offerings also extend beyond conventional collector coins with a Gold Maple Leaf pendant incorporating a one-20th-ounce pure gold coin into an 18-karat gold pendant and necklace. Look for complete coverage of the Mint’s August releases, including specifications, mintages and design details, in the upcoming issue of Canadian Coin News.