![]() ![]() They placed a ladder on the tracks reaching up to the third floor window of the museum, climbed into the building, and made their way to the numismatic department. In the early hours of the morning on March 27, during the two-and-a-half hour window in which the S-Bahn train went to bed each night, the men climbed the elevated train tracks behind the museum. They concocted a plan to get their hands on the gold in what was widely described as an “old-fashioned heist.” While the Big Maple Leaf may not have been nearly as precious as an ancient Greek coin, it was still a big draw at the museum, particularly among the younger crowd.Ī group of thieves from Berlin also set their sights on the museum. The Bode Museum is known for its numismatic collection, which contains over half a million pieces that are displayed in a rotating selection in four cabinets on the second floor of the building. For us, it’s just a big chunk of gold.”ĭespite being valuable mostly for its material-and it was quite valuable, clocking in at around $4 million in market worth-one of the five sold took up residence in the Bode Museum in Berlin in December 2010 on loan. Bullion entered this landscape and, while often showing off expert metal craftsmanship, became primarily acquired as an investment, a fancier alternative to a bar of gold.Īs Cristiano Bierrenbach, executive vice president of International Numismatics at Heritage Auction House puts it, “ has no particular significance, numismatic significance, or collector’s significance. (The Perth Mint has since taken the size title, although Canada still reigns when it comes to purity.)Īfter WWI, money in all of its forms became so pervasive that there are next to zero opportunities for newer vintages, so to speak, to become rare and valuable collectables. The Big Maple Leaf, as it came to be known, received one additional distinction: In 2007, it was named the largest coin in the world by the Guinness World Records. In the end, the Royal Canadian Mint created six of these whoppers, the original of which they kept while the other five were sold to buyers (mostly anonymous) around the world. But when we unveiled the million dollar coin, interested buyers came forward and they said, ‘Well I’d like to have one of these coins for myself.’” “It was meant to promote the line of one-ounce, five-nines pure gold bullion coins. “We created this coin as a one-off,” Alexandre Reeves, senior adviser of external communications at the Royal Canadian Mint, tells The Daily Beast. The final product was hand polished over and over again and the designs touched up by craftsmen to create the shiny result they referred to as the million-dollar coin after its face value. After the designs for each side-a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II drawn by Canadian artist Susanna Blunt on the front and a giant maple leaf on the reverse-were computerized and turned into a cast mold, molten gold that had reached over 2000-degrees Fahrenheit was poured into it at a steady rate to make a giant gold coin with the least imperfections possible. The result showed off the mint’s feats of engineering. Or, as the Royal Canadian Mint put it, they created the Big Maple Leaf, “Because we can.” What better way to announce a gold coin of the highest purity in the world than by blowing it up into a massive, 3,215-ounce solid gold wonder. The Royal Canadian Mint was excited to release their latest 1 ounce Gold Maple Leaf coins and blow their competitors out of the water in terms of purity.īut in order to debut such a glittering achievement, they needed a form of advertisement that would have an equal wow factor-they needed a show-stopper. Each mint releases the product of their labors in the form of bullion coins stamped with their own personalized theme-the Philharmonic for Austria, the American Eagle in the U.S., and the Australian Kangaroo for Perth. The minting of bullion around the world is a competitive game, with each organization striving to be the very best when it comes to producing gold. The last time the Canadians had reached such a milestone was in 1982, when they produced gold that was 99.99 percent pure. They had developed the technique to create coins that were 99.999 percent pure, or “five-nines” in mint-speak. The mint had achieved a milestone in the industry.
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