A giant solid gold coin featuring the Queen's head and worth millions of pounds has been stolen from a gallery in Berlin.
The Canadian coin, nicknamed the Big Maple Leaf, has a face value of $1m Canadian (£594,000), but because of the purity of its gold is worth far more – an estimated £3.58m.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The German museum has one of the world's largest coin collections, with around 540,000 items, says The Guardian.
Detectives said that it would probably have required more than one thief to remove the 221lb coin from the gallery where it was on display.
The coin, which features a portrait of the Queen, has a diameter of 1ft 8in and is 1.2 inches thick.
Police spokesman Winfrid Wenzel said: "Based on the information we have so far, we believe that the thief, maybe thieves, broke open a window in the back of the museum next to the railway tracks.
"They then managed to enter the building and went to the coin exhibition."
Neither the police nor the museum were willing to discuss in any detail the security arrangements that were thwarted during the theft, though police did suggest a ladder had been used.
Wenzel said: "The coin was secured with bullet-proof glass inside the building. That much I can say [but] neither I nor the Bode Museum can go into detail regarding personnel inside the building, the alarm system or security installations."
The financial newspaper Barron's says the theft shows that "while investors may debate the merits of gold, there are some people out there who clearly are big fans of the precious metal".
The paper speculates that the "thieves may have some arbitrage in mind", suggesting they may sell it for its value as metal, presumably after melting it down, to make an instant profit.
It adds: "Australia's Perth Mint may want to tighten its security – it has a one tonne gold coin!"
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Crossword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weaponsThe Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarrayIn the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
