Royal Canadian Mint plans $1 for Toronto Maple Leafs

By Jeff Starck

Published: Sep 2, 2017, 5 AM

The Royal Canadian Mint is issuing a circulating commemorative dollar coin in 2017 to celebrate the centennial of the Toronto Maple Leafs. This will be the second NHL dollar issued for circulation in Canada, following the 2009 Montreal Canadiens coin (shown).

Images courtesy of the Royal Canadian Mint.

The Royal Canadian Mint is finally issuing a coin for the Maple Leafs.

Not the famous foliage that is symbolic of the nation, mind you — there are hundreds of coins for the tree — but the professional hockey team that marks its centennial in 2017.

The RCM confirmed plans to issue a circulating dollar coin for the anniversary, but did not disclose images or launch details. RCM spokesperson Christine Aquino said the coin will be launched “later in 2017” but declined to confirm whether that would occur at the team’s home opener, at Air Canada Centre against the New York Rangers, which is scheduled for Oct. 7. For previous sports-themed coins the RCM has issued, it has often chosen events such as a season opener or home opener as the coin’s launch opportunity.

How can collectors determine a coin’s value when price guides assign it different values? Also in this week’s print issue, we learn of the first report of a 2017 doubled die variety, found on a Lincoln cent.

A design description has been approved by the Canadian government Privy Council.

The reverse of the dollar coin is to depict the logo of the Toronto Maple Leafs, with two crossed hockey sticks above the logo — one stick of the type used in the team’s early years and the other in the team’s modern years — the inscriptions 1917 to the left and 2017 to the right of the logo, a lasermark maple leaf within a maple leaf within a circle above the design, the inscriptions CANADA and DOLLAR at the top respectively to the left and right of a hockey puck, below which is a semi-circle.

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Beading borders the circumference of the design field.

The obverse of the coin will carry the common effigy of Queen Elizabeth II designed by Susanna Blunt.

The Maple Leafs were founded in 1917, operating simply as Toronto and afterward known as the Toronto Arenas. Under new ownership, the club was named the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919. In 1927 the club was purchased by Conn Smythe and renamed the Maple Leafs.

Members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League, the Maple Leafs are the second NHL franchise to receive honors from the RCM with a circulating commemorative dollar coin, following the 2009 release of a dollar coin for the Montreal Canadiens.