How one of the largest coins in the world was stolen
The $1 million CAD coin was the largest coin in the world from 2007 to 2011.
Fifteen years ago, the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa minted the world's first $1 million CAD coin. It consisted of 99.999% proof gold. The reverse depicts a maple leaf and the obverse a portrait of Queen Elizabeth. They were engraved and polished by hand.
The coin is 53 cm in diameter and weighs 100 kg. The coin entered the Guinness Book of Records and remained the largest coin in the world until 2011, when Australia minted a gold coin weighing a ton.
The Royal Canadian Mint issued a total of six Big Maple Leaf coins. One of them, valued at $5.8 million CAD, was stolen from a Berlin museum in 2017. The owner had lent it to the Bode Museum exhibit in 2010. The thieves, one of whom turned out to be a museum employee, were caught and convicted. But what happened to the coin is unknown. According to the investigation, the coin was dropped when it was pulled out of the window of the museum, it left a deep pothole in the concrete, probably damaged, and then the coin was melted.
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