by They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but a piece of “rock” that holds a door open for decades is actually treasure, no matter how you look at it.
The 3.5-kilogram stone was found in a riverbed in southeastern Romania by an elderly woman, who took it home and used it.
Her discovery turned out to be one of the largest intact pieces of amber in the world, according to a report by The Pais. The value? Somewhere in the region of €1 million – around $US1.1 million.
Amber is tree resin from millions of years ago. Over time, the highly viscous substance fossilizes into a hard, warm-colored material that is widely recognized as a gemstone.
In Romania, pieces of amber can be found around the village of Colti in the sandstone of the banks of the Buzau River, where it has been mined since the 1920s. This amber, known as rumanite, is famous and prized for its wide range of deep, reddish hues.
According to reports, the elderly woman who found this particular rumanite lump lived in Colti, where it still served such a modest function that it was overlooked even by jewel thieves who once targeted the house.
After the woman died in 1991, the relative who inherited her home suspected that the doorstop might be more than met the eye. When he discovered what he had, he sold the amber to the Romanian state, who had it appraised by experts at the Historical Museum in Krakow, Poland.
According to these experts, the amber is probably between 38 and 70 million years old.
“Its discovery represents great significance, both at a scientific level and at a museum level,” said Daniel Costache, director of the Provincial Museum of Buzau. The Pais.
The gold nugget is classified as a national treasure of Romania and has been on display since 2022 in the Provincial Museum of Buzau, the province where the relic was found.
The discovery is reminiscent of a man in Michigan who used a large piece of rock as a doorstop, only to discover decades later that he was holding his doors in place with a meteorite worth $100,000.
A piece of amber worth over a million dollars isn’t a bad score either, actually. Just imagine how many doorstops you could buy.
