American Eagle Vs Everyone Else

Gold is gold is gold is gold, as far as bullion is concerned. The only differences are, bullion coins are fully backed by the issuing gov't.(I hardly think that people are going to consider the gold coins of any Gov't worthless, if that gov't goes under. It is still gold.

The other difference is fineness, AGE's are .999 fine, while Maple Leafs are .9999 fine. They all still have 1 oz of gold.

Agree with denco7, with the exception that gold eagles are .9167 fine. You need to go with gold Buffalos to get 24kt American gold bullion.

Countries do make a small (or for some countries, not-so-small) profit from the production and sale of their bullion coins. They would not make them if they could not make them profitably. So in that sense, yes, buying Canadian coins "supports" the Canadian government, and so forth.

Such "support" is higher for countries that actually mine the precious metal in question. Australia, for example, has plenty of gold and silver mines, but no platinum mines - so Australian gold and silver coins are more profitable for the Australian mints (and therefore the Australian governments that own them) than "Australian" platinum coins, because the Australian mint has to import every ounce of platinum from South Africa or Russia.

Finally, some countries receive very little of the profits from the production and sale of "their" coins, because foreign and/or private mints are making them in their name. Fiji silver turtles, for example, are made by the "New Zealand Mint", a private mint (not government owned). The Fijian government hopefully receives a piece of the action, but the lion's share of the profits are going to the private mint's operators.

Remember that the Canadian Maple hit the scene because people were politically against South Africa at the time. You can also look at purity if you're truly "stacking" gold in your safe.

Generally it is best to hold the bullion of your country because they are accepted in some banks, 401K, and are generally more recognizable. But because gold is gold, a bar does the job just as well and at a cheaper price. I could care less what my gold looks like as long as it is the pure element. I would actually prefer to stack wire for various reasons, albeit pricier.