By Lewis Jackson
SYDNEY (Reuters) -An Australian man is set to appear in court on Wednesday after being arrested for the alleged theft of more than A$600,000 ($393,000) worth of commemorative coins linked to the popular children's television show "Bluey", police said.
The 47-year-old is accused of stealing 64,000 unreleased, limited-edition A$1 coins from a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park in June, according to "Strike Force Bandit", a special unit police set up to investigate the theft.
One of last year's most streamed television shows in the United States, the Australian animated show targeted at children is widely loved by adults and was the 14th highest rated show of all time, the movie tracker website IMDB.com shows.
The coins, produced by the Australian mint, look like A$1 coins and would be legal tender. Police say they are selling online for ten times their face value.
A similar run of special commemorative coins sell for A$20 each on the mint's website. One eBay seller was charging almost A$600 for a pack of three.
Detective Superintendent Joseph Doueihi told reporters at a news conference he was not initially aware of the show's popularity.
"The theft of these coins have deprived a lot of young children and members of the community from having access to these coins, so we're doing our absolute best to try to recover these coins and put them back into circulation."
Police say the man worked at the warehouse and stole the coins, which weighed 500 kilograms (1102 lb), from the back of a truck, before selling them online within hours. Police are looking for two male accomplices.
A raid on a Sydney house in June recovered 189 coins and Doueihi said the vast bulk of coins are already in circulation. Those who receive one do not need to surrender it to police, he added.
He appealed for anyone with information about large stashes of coins to contact the police.
($1=1.5267 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christopher Cushing)
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