The 100-Kilo Coin - Bode-Museum
Beneath the grand copper dome of the Bode Museum lies one of the world's largest coin collections, and in the early hours of 27 March 2017 thieves climbed in from the railway viaduct behind it, carried off a 100 kilogram Canadian gold coin worth some 3.75 million euros, and wheeled it into the night in a wheelbarrow.
About this place
The Bode Museum, built by court architect Ernst von Ihne between 1897 and 1904 and opened as the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, sits like a ship's prow at the northern tip of Museum Island, with the elevated S-Bahn tracks running within metres of its back wall. Inside, the Muenzkabinett holds more than 500,000 coins and medals, and from 2010 its star attraction was the Big Maple Leaf, a 100 kilogram coin of 99.999 percent pure gold minted by the Royal Canadian Mint, with a face value of one million Canadian dollars and a metal value of roughly 3.75 million euros. In the night of 26 to 27 March 2017, a small group walked along the tracks with a ladder, forced a window, smashed the display case on the upper floor, lowered the coin to the rails with a rope, rolled it along the viaduct, dropped it to the street and pushed it into Monbijou Park in a wheelbarrow. Microscopic gold shavings found in cars, apartments and on clothing led to members of the Remmo clan; on 20 February 2020 the Berlin Regional Court sentenced Wissam and Ahmed Remmo to four and a half years each and former museum guard Denis W. to three years and four months, and ordered the confiscation of 3.4 million euros. The coin was never recovered and is presumed to have been melted down.
Key facts
- 100 kilograms — The weight of the Big Maple Leaf, a 53 centimetre coin of 99.999 percent pure gold with a face value of one million Canadian dollars, on loan to the museum since 2010.
- 2017 year — In the early hours of 27 March, thieves entered through a window reached from the S-Bahn viaduct behind the museum and escaped with the coin in a wheelbarrow through Monbijou Park.
- 3.4 million euros — The sum the Berlin Regional Court ordered confiscated from the convicted men on 20 February 2020, alongside prison terms of up to four and a half years. The coin itself was never found.
📍 Am Kupfergraben 1-3, 10117, Berlin