100-kg gold coin worth $1 million stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum

The Big Maple Leaf, a gold coin with a face value of $1 million and weighing 100 kg - which was a commemorative piece issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 and features the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II – was stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum.

Thieves stole a gold coin with a face value of $1 million and weighing 100 kg from Berlin’s Bode Museum on Monday.

One of the world's largest gold coins, a 2007 Canadian $1 million Big Maple Leaf, which was stolen from Berlin's Bode Museum.(REUTERS File)

According to German media, the stolen coin was the “Big Maple Leaf”, a commemorative piece issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007.

The coin, 53 cm (21 inches) across and 3 cm thick, features the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

Bode Museum gave the face value of the coin at $1 million (920,000 euros), though the market price of 100 kg of gold is around $4 million.

German police said on Twitter that the robbers likely used a ladder found at a nearby rail track to break into the museum at around 3.30am.

Suburban rail traffic was interrupted as investigators combed the area for clues.

The Bode Museum, located on the German capital’s Unesco-listed Museum Island, houses one of the world’s biggest coin collections.

The holding includes 102,000 coins from ancient Greece and about 50,000 Roman coins.