BERLIN — You could never palm it, flip it or plunk it into a vending machine, but apparently it can be pinched: The world’s largest gold coin, a 221-pound Canadian monster called the Big Maple Leaf, was stolen overnight from the Bode Museum in Berlin, police said Monday. A former RCMP organized crime specialist has some ideas of what might have happened to the world’s largest and purest gold coin, a 221-pound Canadian whopper called The Big Maple Leaf. Its face value is 1 million Canadian dollars, but by weight of gold alone it is worth much more than that — as much as $4.5 million at current market prices. Minted in Ottawa in 2007, with the profile of Queen Elizabeth II, it was certified by Guinness World Records due to its size and 999.99/1000 gold purity. Spokesman Stefen Petersen said thieves apparently entered through a window at about 3:30 a.m. local time on Monday, broke into a cabinet where the coin was kept, and escaped with it before police arrived.
The Big Maple Leaf, a solid gold 1 million dollar Canadian coin weighing 100 kilograms (220 lb), is stolen from the Bode Museum in Berlin, Germany.