Surprisingly, even stealing coins may be very profitable, especially if this coin is made of pure gold and weighs 100 kg.
Such a coin was stolen from Berlin’s Bode museum. Interestingly, the museum has the world’s biggest coins collection, though it is better to say, it used to have. The Big Maple Leaf is the name of the 100-kilogram coin which was minted by the Royal Canadian Mint 10 years ago. The three-centimeter thick coin with a diameter of 53 centimeters has a face value of 1 million Canadian dollars. However, taking into account the current gold price, its market value exceeds €3.7 million. The theft is a unique crime. The fact is the museum’s building is surrounded by water and is next to nearby railway tracks. The robbers calculated precisely the the interval between trains and likely used a ladder to break into the museum.
The Big Maple Leaf used to be the biggest gold coin in the world. Altogether there were 6 such coins until a 1-tonne gold coin was minted by the Perth Mint, Australia. Measuring 80 centimeters wide and 13 centimeters deep it is the biggest, heaviest and inherently most valuable gold bullion coin in the world.
