Giant gold coin trial opens in Berlin 0

[RWB]

Link to BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46821706

[kbbpll]

I was wondering what happened with that story - thanks for posting. Interesting that they may have laundered it into 77 properties.

[Revenant]

On 11/25/2019 at 3:58 PM, kbbpll said:

I was wondering what happened with that story - thanks for posting. Interesting that they may have laundered it into 77 properties.

Makes you wonder how they thought that kind of property buying would go unnoticed.

[thebeav]

I had forgotten that one.....

It's amazing to me that security for such valuable things can be so lax (no alarm just because it was the third floor). 

[Just Bob]

Quoted from the article:

"Detectives have not recovered the coin, and believe it has been either cut into pieces or melted down and sold."

"It was one of just five such coins minted by Canada, and had been donated to the museum by an anonymous collector."

" Was held in a coin cabinet at the Bode Museum as one of more than 540,000 objects, but German media reported only the "Big Maple Leaf" was stolen "

 

This is obviously a plot by at least one of the owners of the other coins, to increase the value of the remaining coins by increasing the rarity.

 

 

[kbbpll]

Yeah, the melted one was probably the top pop, so somebody's registry set just moved up.

[coinsandmedals]

1 hour ago, kbbpll said:

Yeah, the melted one was probably the top pop, so somebody's registry set just moved up.

This is priceless! 

[World Colonial]

No real loss to numismatics, it wasn't a real coin anyway but a marketing gimmick.

[Revenant]

1 hour ago, World Colonial said:

No real loss to numismatics, it wasn't a real coin anyway but a marketing gimmick.

Well, it was appropriate for a museum - basically a big heavy art piece made as a tribute to the 1 oz versions. 

[RWB]

Not clear that the gold blob was a "tribute" to anything. A clever marketing gimmick for the privately run Canadian Mint. It's loss, or that of the remaining ones is no loss to history, culture, and certainly not art.

:)

[Revenant]

8 hours ago, RWB said:

Not clear that the gold blob was a "tribute" to anything. A clever marketing gimmick for the privately run Canadian Mint. It's loss, or that of the remaining ones is no loss to history, culture, and certainly not art.

Urinals have been turned upside down and presented as art. Art has a pretty low and subjective bar if we're being honest.

Maybe not as a tribute to the smaller ones but definitely made to gain publicity for them and maybe increase sales. It definitely wouldn't exist without the smaller ones and is referential by way of using the same design and getting called "the big maple" (where there's a small one).