This glittering gold coin with a face value of one million and worth several million is on the left side of the entrance to the "Earth’s Treasures" gallery on the second floor of the Royal Ontario Museum.
This is a gold coin with a face value of one million Canadian dollars, and its official name is "Big Maple Leaf". For this new face value, Canada also supplemented and amended the Canadian Currency Act. The gold coin was minted in 2007, with a diameter of 21 inches, a thickness of 1.5 inches, a weight of 100 kilograms, and a gold content of 99.999% (five nines). Generally, the gold content of gold coins is 99.99%. Only with precise technology can reach 99.999%. Currently, only the Royal Canadian Mint can routinely produce this five-nine rare gold coins. The front of the coin shows the queen without a crown. The reverse is a hand-polished maple leaf.
Why does Canada produce this coin? It turns out it’s not for business, but for showing off! At that time, Austria made a gold coin weighing 70 pounds (about 32 kilograms) and 15 inches in diameter. Canada wouldn't lag behind, so it used the most precise technology to create a larger and purer gold coin. It immediately entered the Guinness Book of Records. But let me tell you quietly, this record was broken by Australia in 2011. After a few years of hard work, they produced a gold coin weighing one ton, which is 1,000 kilograms. However, the coin was four nines pure, so Canada still wins!
The gold coin was placed in the Royal Mint Museum in Ottawa, and it attracted business. Five more identical gold coins were minted and sold by requests. Some of the people or companies who bought the coins felt that having fun alone was not as good as having fun together, so they loaned the coins to the museum! The coin we saw at the Royal Ontario Museum came from the Barrick Gold Corporation.
A rich man, Boris Fuchsmann, also bought this coin and loaned it to the famous Bode Museum in Germany in 2010. Unexpectedly, on the dark and windy night of March 27, 2017, the coins were stolen without even triggering the alarm! After investigation, the police learned that this was a few thieves that were coordinated inside and outside. The thieves entered through the window and stole the coins from the cabinet. There were train tracks down the museum. The coin seemed to have been damaged while rolling from the tracks to the street. Then the police found gold powder in the thieves’ clothes and car, so they determined the gold coins have been melted down. What a shame!
In the end, because the thieves were all young, three of the four were sentenced to more than four years, and one was acquitted. Of course, the stolen money from selling gold found on them was also confiscated. As for the insurance company, they said it was the museum's negligence and only paid out 20% of the losses, and only paid half back after a lawsuit.
After knowing so many interesting stories, is this gold coin more worthy of your appreciation?