The working theory, as the New York Times noted, is that thieves dragged the coin through the museum then along the railroad tracks, likely to a nearby park. How they would have avoided any further security systems or cameras remained unclear, as police declined to comment further.

But there was little doubt that the coin was a specific target. The bulletproof glass encapsulating the coin “appeared to have been violently shattered,” Wenzel said. Meanwhile, the other coins in the display remained peaceably untouched.

The Royal Canadian Mint produced its first $1 million (Canadian) gold coin in 2007. On one side appeared the head of Queen Elizabeth II. The other side bore the image of a maple leaf.

Nicknamed the “Big Maple Leaf,” the coin boasts impressive metrics: It is 99.999 percent pure gold, more than an inch thick and its diameter exceeds 20 inches. It was featured in the Guinness Book of Records for its “unsurpassed purity,” CNN reported. The coin’s face value is a misnomer. Given its gold content, it is actually worth around $4.5 million.