Thieves have stolen a 100 kilogram gold coin from a Berlin museum worth €3.7 million.

The oversized gold coin was snatched from a German museum.

The thieves got into Berlin's Bode museum overnight on Sunday, stealing the precious coin weighing 100 kilograms.  

"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 S-Bahn tracks. They then managed to enter the building and went to the coin exhibition. There, they stole a single object, an extraordinary coin out of gold weighing 100 kilograms with a face value of one million US dollars."

The coin has made it into the Guinness Book of Records for its gold purity. Fifty-three centimetres wide and three centimetres thick, its known as the Big Maple Leaf.

Issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007, it's decorated with a portrait of the Queen and maple leaves.

It's been on loan to the Bode Museum since December 2010 - secured behind bullet-proof glass. But that, apparently, not enough to keep it out of the hands of thieves.