100 Kilogram Gold Coin Worth $4.5 Million Stolen!

tincup

Remember that one of a kind gold Maple Leaf with a face value of 1 million dollars minted by RCM in 2007? Looks like it was stolen from a German museum..,. now that is a heist! Wonder what coin shop that will walk into (NOT!) I'm sure that will get melted down very quickly, and will then be untraceable. Inside job perhaps?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-27/massive-100-kilogram-gold-coin-worth-45-million-stolen-german-museum

MsMorrisine

I wish I hadn't self insured

JJSingleton

What the heck? It weighs over 200lbs, not the type of item you just walk out with. My gut says inside job. And where do you go to melt a couple of hundred pounds without any attention given?

tincup

Sounds like it was kind of tricky pulling this off... used a ladder and upper window access... not easy to make off with an item weighing over 200 pounds....

oih82w8

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/978463/gold-coin-in-guinness-book-of-records-stolen#latest

logger7

It doesn't fit the definition of a "coin", maybe a giant "slug" but who cares?

Overdate

I wonder if the coin has any unique identifying characteristics that might aid in its recovery.

BAJJERFAN

Didn't they make 2 or 3 of those?

asheland

Dang!

SONOMOSCA

Suspect seen fleeing the scene...

tincup

@BAJJERFAN said:
Didn't they make 2 or 3 of those?

I don't remember for sure... maybe they did. Should have had it graded and beaned for a pop of 1!

Overdate

@BAJJERFAN said:
Didn't they make 2 or 3 of those?

According to these articles, five were made:

http://currencies.wikia.com/wiki/Canadian_1,000,000_dollar_coin

http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/about-the-mint/million-dollar-coin-1600006

steveben

@JJSingleton said:
What the heck? It weighs over 200lbs, not the type of item you just walk out with. My gut says inside job. And where do you go to melt a couple of hundred pounds without any attention given?

probably...but you could roll the coin out. if the plan is to melt it down, which seems to be the best idea, then rim damage wouldn't matter.

lkeigwin

The coin is (was) owned by Boris Fuchsmann, a well known businessman, the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, the President of the Ukrainian Media Group, the President of the Company “Cinema-City” and also of the Kiev Hotel “Hilton Inn Kyiv”.

CaptHenway

@steveben said:

@JJSingleton said:
What the heck? It weighs over 200lbs, not the type of item you just walk out with. My gut says inside job. And where do you go to melt a couple of hundred pounds without any attention given?

probably...but you could roll the coin out. if the plan is to melt it down, which seems to be the best idea, then rim damage wouldn't matter.

I am sure it has already been hacksawed into pieces, melted down and recast as anonymous ingots.

epcjimi1

I wonder what the insurance coverage was.

BAJJERFAN

IIRC at least one was up for sale by APMEX or someone like that.

BLUEJAYWAY

Maybe the Chinese counterfeiters can "mint" him a replacement.

rawteam1

@epcjimi1 said:
I wonder what the insurance coverage was.

The guy is a genius, it was the only way to make his money back...

privaterarecoincollector

Im in Berlin right now and it got stolen just 1 mile next to me while i was here. Its a very smart plan to steal this coin: its value is gold only and it can be melted and sold without a trace back at at least 90 cents on the dollar.

privaterarecoincollector

Berlin is crazy these days, so much crime. The main shopping mall was robbed in total for 3 Mio USD the last 6 months.

DRUNNER

Announced it to my classes today . .even high school sophs realized it was thrown out the window (221 pounds) and then melted by nightfall . .which was 10am Salt Lake time . . .

Drunner

PerryHall

@logger7 said:
It doesn't fit the definition of a "coin", maybe a giant "slug" but who cares?

It's a real legal tender coin made by the Royal Canadian Mint and has a face value of $1,000,000 Canadian dollars. It's commonly referred to as a NCLT (Non Circulating Legal Tender) coin.

logger7

OK, I looked it up you may be right it is a "coin" albeit an unconventional one. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/coin

jwitten

@steveben said:

@JJSingleton said:
What the heck? It weighs over 200lbs, not the type of item you just walk out with. My gut says inside job. And where do you go to melt a couple of hundred pounds without any attention given?

probably...but you could roll the coin out. if the plan is to melt it down, which seems to be the best idea, then rim damage wouldn't matter.

If I was in the area I would be taking a broom and dustpan to the pavement around the area... just in case, hehe

SeattleSlammer

Hugh Wood ?

hchcoin

Wow

2manycoins2fewfunds

Watch the TPG service pops.

They may try to have it graded for inclusion in a registry set.

More money than that has been spent chasing labels for registry sets.

Musky1011

I would have cut it into 1/4 pieces ... Much easier to haul away

VanHalen

@Musky1011 said:
I would have cut it into 1/4 pieces ... Much easier to haul away

That's about the only way one person could carry it. Four 55 pound chunks of gold. Talk about a pie in the sky.

BruceS

@VanHalen said:

@Musky1011 said:
I would have cut it into 1/4 pieces ... Much easier to haul away

That's about the only way one person could carry it. Four 55 pound chunks of gold. Talk about a pie in the sky.

There is no way they had the time to cut it up. Plus there would be a lot of scrap cuttings in the area and would have been obvious and most likely reported.

Azurescens

I'd have just dropped it. You're melting it who cares. What's it gonna do, shatter?

crazyhounddog

Hand truck Forklift? Furniture dolly?

PerryHall

@crazyhounddog said:
Hand truck Forklift? Furniture dolly?

Or just tilt it up and roll it across the floor.

UnclePennyBags

While 221 pounds is quite a bit a weight, I am sure someone physically fit with a 4 million dollar adrenaline rush would have no problem getting it across a room without having to treat it nicely... but even so a simple square furniture dolly on casters would have been easy to bring and maneuver. The only way to cut that gold up that fast would be portable set of cutting torches which would be cumbersome to carry in and draw a lot of attention.

PerryHall

@UnclePennyBags said:
While 221 pounds is quite a bit a weight, I am sure someone physically fit with a 4 million dollar adrenaline rush would have no problem getting it across a room without having to treat it nicely... but even so a simple square furniture dolly on casters would have been easy to bring and maneuver.

Why bring a dolly when you can just roll it across the floor?

UnclePennyBags

@PerryHall said:

@UnclePennyBags said:
While 221 pounds is quite a bit a weight, I am sure someone physically fit with a 4 million dollar adrenaline rush would have no problem getting it across a room without having to treat it nicely... but even so a simple square furniture dolly on casters would have been easy to bring and maneuver.

Why bring a dolly when you can just roll it across the floor?

It is 20 inches tall and not that thick I would imagine a dolly would be easier than rolling. at 221 pounds I would have picked it up and carried it but I'm also not little lol.

DNADave

@Azurescens said:
I'd have just dropped it. You're melting it who cares. What's it gonna do, shatter?

I wonder what kind of sound it made when it hit the ground? Not like a Morgan dollar hitting the bourse floor...but maybe it had that "ring" that you look for in authentic coins.

ricko

With the current high crime rate in Berlin, you can bet this coin is long gone. A well planned heist, and minimum security at the target. This will not go to a secret collection, rather to fund nefarious activity. I doubt that the coin will ever be seen again. Cheers, RickO

CaptHenway

@UnclePennyBags said:
While 221 pounds is quite a bit a weight, I am sure someone physically fit with a 4 million dollar adrenaline rush would have no problem getting it across a room without having to treat it nicely... but even so a simple square furniture dolly on casters would have been easy to bring and maneuver. The only way to cut that gold up that fast would be portable set of cutting torches which would be cumbersome to carry in and draw a lot of attention.

I'll bet I could cut it up into meltable chunks with a cold chisel and sledgehammer.

PerryHall

@CaptHenway said:

@UnclePennyBags said:
While 221 pounds is quite a bit a weight, I am sure someone physically fit with a 4 million dollar adrenaline rush would have no problem getting it across a room without having to treat it nicely... but even so a simple square furniture dolly on casters would have been easy to bring and maneuver. The only way to cut that gold up that fast would be portable set of cutting torches which would be cumbersome to carry in and draw a lot of attention.

I'll bet I could cut it up into meltable chunks with a cold chisel and sledgehammer.

I'm not sure it's a good idea to make that much noise during a burglary.

tincup

@ricko said:
With the current high crime rate in Berlin, you can bet this coin is long gone. A well planned heist, and minimum security at the target. This will not go to a secret collection, rather to fund nefarious activity. I doubt that the coin will ever be seen again. Cheers, RickO

I agree with you ricko. Roll it across the floor, drop out of window, get removed from site, then anything goes. That 'coin' would then have a drastic change in appearance very quickly with nothing fancy. With just a torch, make gold shot/nuggets and no one will ever be able to trace (unless there was some video taken that will provide a lead).

epcjimi1

That's what I do. Display my 221 lb gold coin in a museum without audio, camera, vibration sensors sufficient to indicate bad things are happening at 330 am and results in theft.

It's an insurance scam. MHO. Never to be seen again.

Azurescens

We move some heavy boxes out of freight. We are supposed to team lift over 70lbs. Chairs and windows and stuff suck, but if it's a small heavy box, the sky is the limit. Those you can just grab opposing corners and hug it, letting your glutes and quads do the work while you walk it.

Like @UnclePennyBags said, a 4 million dollar adrenaline rush would probably fix it. I'm a large man, I don't think I'd really have a problem. It would be harder than, say, trying to lift a 100kg body. Also bricks of shingles can be carried in both hands going up a ladder, and that can be 160 or more.

If they "found" a ladder on a nearby rail track, I bet they "found" a pulley system as well.

If they just tossed it I wonder if it was heads or tails.

roadrunner

Yap Money Gone Wild.

SoCalBigMark

Anyone seen Flavor Flav lately?

RogerB

Chopped, melted, cast and sold by now.

The planning required to steal it implies equal planning to dispose of it.

UnclePennyBags

@CaptHenway said

I'll bet I could cut it up into meltable chunks with a cold chisel and sledgehammer.

I'm betting I could too, but wouldn't want to be doing it under the time constraints of burglary.

northcoin

@privaterarecoincollector said:
Berlin is crazy these days, so much crime. The main shopping mall was robbed in total for 3 Mio USD the last 6 months.

Anything to do with open borders? I know when we were robbed in France the detective to whom we reported our misfortune implied that the influx of "outsiders" involved in similar crimes was so rampant that they did not have the resources to do anything about it.

ricko

@northcoin....My reference above to 'nefarious activity' was exactly that... This will bankroll further 'outsider' activity....Cheers, RickO

ShadyDave

They made an arrest...but looks like the coin may have been melted down already.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40579867