50 Dollars - Elizabeth II Big and little bear constellations, Autumn

Canada's 2006 palladium bullion series was among the first government-issued palladium coinage programs in the world, launched at a moment when palladium spot prices had collapsed from their extraordinary 2001 spike — briefly above $1,000 USD per troy ounce — back to levels that made the metal viable for a coin program. The Royal Canadian Mint chose the format partly to establish early positioning in a precious metals niche that gold and silver programs had never filled.

Palladium's catalytic converter demand, not investment demand, drives its market. That industrial dependency gives these coins an unusually volatile melt-value history relative to their mintage.