The Royal Canadian Mint has produced the world's first 100-kilogram gold coin with a face value of $1 million. And they're for sale.

Why did it do this? "Because we can," the mint said on its website.

The Royal Canadian Mint displays one of its new 100-kg, pure gold bullion coins.
(Canadian Press/Tom Hanson)

The coin is the size of a "very thick pizza" — 50 centimetres wide and three centimetres thick — and is .99999 pure.

It was originally meant to be a one-off novelty item to help promote the other gold coin the mint unveiled Thursday — a new line of one-ounce Maple Leaf bullion coins that will have a face value of $200.

But after several interested buyers came forward, the mint decided to produce "a very limited quantity" of the $1-million coins on a made-to-order basis for public sale.  

Even though the big coin has a face value of $1 million, it won't sell for that. At current prices, the coin's 3,215 troy ounces of gold are worth well over $2 million.

A mint spokesperson said the coins will sell for between $2.5 million and $3 million. So far, the mint has received confirmed orders for five coins.

The Royal Canadian Mint faces international competition from a variety of other countries that also make gold coins.