Gold coin weighing 100 kg stolen from Berlin museum

BERLIN: A Canadian gold coin named “Big Maple Leaf” which bears the image of Queen Elizabeth II was stolen in the early hours of Monday morning from Berlin’s Bode Museum.

The coin is made out of pure gold, weighs about 100 kilos and has a face value of around $1 million.

“The coin was stolen last night, it’s gone,” museum spokesman Markus Farr said.

Given the high purity of the gold used in the coin, its material value is estimated to be $4 million.

The museum said on its website that the coin was issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 and that it had been featured in the Guinness Book of Records for its “unmatched” degree of purity.

The coin, with a diameter of 53 centimetres and 3 centimetres thick, was loaned to Bode Museum in December 2010.

Police said it was probably stolen by a group of thieves who entered the museum undetected through a window, possibly with the help of a ladder.