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The coin is made out of pure gold, weighs about 100 kilos and
has a face value of around $1 million.
"The coin was stolen last night, it's gone," museum spokesman
Markus Farr said.
Given the high purity of the gold used in the coin, its material
value is estimated to be $4 million.
The museum said on its website that the coin was issued by the
Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 and that it was featured in the
Guinness Book of Records for its "unmatched" degree of purity.
The coin, with a diameter of 53 centimeters and 3 centimeters
thick, was loaned to the Bode Museum in December 2010.
Police said it was probably stolen by a group of thieves who
entered the museum undetected through a window, possibly with
the help of a ladder.
"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," police spokesman Winfrid
Wenzel said. "They then managed to enter the building and went
to the coin exhibition.
"The coin was secured with bullet-proof glass inside the
building. That much I can say," Wenzel added.
"Neither I nor the Bode Museum can go into detail regarding
personnel inside the building, the alarm system or security
installations."
The Bode Museum has one of the world's largest coin collections
with more than 540,000 items.
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, editing by Ed Osmond)
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