Hello Silver & Gold stackers! Another week and I have another coin for you!

I picked this up a few months ago and gave a preview of it at that time, but haven't posted about it till now.

I'll give some basic coin stats, then we'll look at both sides, and then I'll give some more general info!

Sound fun? Let's go!

Stats

Some basic coin stats for you:

• Weight: 31.11 g (1 troy ounce)
• Diameter: 38 mm
• Thickness: 3.29 mm
• Edge: reeded

It has a face value of $5 but a market value of far higher, because most importantly, it's 99.99% silver, making it one of the finest official bullion coins worldwide.

Obverse

Queen Elizabeth II, in a portrait by Susanna Blunt. You all probably know how I feel about putting people on coins by now—I'm not a fan. That said, it's a nice enough likeness of her. According to Numista she is 77 years old in this portrait.

You can see my copy is a little dirty. Are those milk spots? Milk streaks? Hmm.. The edge is also a little beat up. Whoever sold this to the coin shop before I picked it up must have used it as a pocket piece and/or dropped it a few times.

Reverse

A really nicely designed silver maple leaf. It's a simple image, but incredibly attractive in its simplicity. It has a security feature below the leaf. I'm not sure how that works exactly, but there you go.

About

Since 2018 it has been minted with a technology to prevent milk spots. That May have no been working on this one, I don't know.

It's a really nice simple design and I like it a lot. If I was going to pick a coin to buy annually, it'd probably be this one. (Unless Japan starts to do her own annual bullion coin, in which case I'd pick that one.)

^{You can see it's a bit smaller in diameter than the US silver eagle}

^{But it's a little thicker}

^{And it is massive compared to a ¥100 coin}

^{Or a pre-war 10 sen}

All in all, it's a nice one and I hope the store here gets some more so I can pick them up as well.

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.