The Australian Mint produced the limited edition coins with a face value of one Australian dollar each – but before they could go into circulation, 63,000 of the unreleased coins were stolen from a warehouse in Sydney.

Police later swooped on a property in the western Sydney suburb of Sefton and allegedly retrieved 189 of the coins as well as a number of electronic devices.

New South Wales Police say they have now arrested a 47-year-old man and charged him with three counts of breaking and entering with the intent to commit a serious indictable offence.

Police allege that the man was an employee at the warehouse, stole the Australian Mint packages from the back of a truck and then sold the coins online within hours.

The coins are now said to be in circulation online at 10 times their face value.