A 100-kg gold coin worth $4 million was stolen from the Berlin’s Bode Museum earlier this week, according to multiple news sources. The coin, called “Big Maple Leaf”, is made of 99.999% pure gold and carries Queen Elizabeth II’s imprint on side and a maple leaf on the other.
According to Mining Weekly, a security guard at the museum alerted police in the wee hours of Monday morning that the coin had been removed from its case. The burglars circumvented the alarm system, and “a ladder was found on nearby local train tracks which may have been used in the plot”, as per the report. Police also found a window “forcibly opened”.
The “Big Maple Leaf” is “as big as a car tire”, according to the report. It was issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007, and there are only five coins of that type in the world. According to the report, it has “been on display in the museum since 2010, on loan from a private owner”.
