In early November, the Royal Canadian Mint struck for the first time legal tender palladium coins. The Royal Canadian Mint is one of the world's premier mints, and the Palladium Maple Leafs ad to the Mint's stellar line of coins. (The Mint's Gold Maple Leafs are the world's best-selling 24-karat gold bullion coins.) The first run of Palladium Maple Leafs will be dated 2005 and limited to 40,000 coins.
Only one size of Palladium Maple Leaf coins will be minted: a one ounce coin with a legal tender value of $50. The coins will be 99.95% pure, which is standard for palladium investment products, including the popular Credit Suisse 1-oz bars and the PAMP 1-oz bars.
Palladium Maple Leaf coins will be individually sealed in thermatron, in strips of ten coins. The new coins are the only legal tender palladium bullion coins being minted by a major government mint.
The 2005-dated Palladium Maple Leaf coins stand a chance of achieving collector premiums with only 40,000 being minted. That is because the 40,000 2005-dated coins probably will turn out to be a small mintage relative to years during which the coins will be minted for twelve months.
However, buyers looking for Palladium Maple Leafs to pick up collector premiums need to be aware that there is not a good history of palladium coins appealing to collectors. Yet before the first shipment of Palladium Maple Leaf coins was made, one major wholesaler had already sold most of its allotment.
Palladium is a member of a six-metal group called the Platinum Group Metals and is a by-product of platinum and nickel mining. Because palladium has similar chemical characteristics to platinum, it is often used as a substitute for platinum when cost effective to do so.
The primary demand for palladium is the manufacture of catalytic converters for auto emissions control. Other uses include electronics, dental, chemical, and jewelry. The palladium market is relatively small compared with the markets for gold, silver, and platinum, the best-known and most popular precious metals investments.
Investors who like palladium should move quickly to get a position in 2005-dated Palladium Maple Leafs. The coins are being offered at lower premiums than the Credit Suisse 1-oz palladium bars and the PAMP 1-oz palladium bars, and coins stand an outside chance of picking up collector premiums.
