Doorstop turns out to be huge chunk of amber worth over a million dollars

A piece of rock being used as a doorstop for decades by a woman in Romania turned out to be a treasure worth $1 million. While strolling near a stream in southeast Romania, the elderly woman came across a piece of rock. It weighed 3.5 kilogrammes (7.7 pounds). She brought it back with her and started using it as a doorstop.

The rock was actually a huge chunk of amber, and it was one of the biggest pieces ever found, according to a report by El Pais. Its value was somewhere around €1 million ($US1.1 million). But the woman didn't know, and neither did the thieves who once burgled her home. To them, it was just a doorstop.

The woman died in 1991, and one of her relatives inherited her home. The rock caught his attention, and hebelieved it might not just be a simple piece of rock. Upon learning that it was amber, the man sold it to the Romanian state. The Museum of History in Krakow, Poland, then studied to know how old it is.

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The amber was estimated to be around 38 and 70 million years old.

"Its discovery represents a great significance both at a scientific level and at a museum level," Daniel Costache, director of the Provincial Museum of Buzau, told El Pais.

The chunk of amber has been classified as a national treasure of Romania and has been in the Provincial Museum of Buzau since 2022.

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Amber is formed from tree resin when it fossilises into a hard, material of reddish-brown colour over millions of years. It is quite a popular gemstone. The old woman lived in Colti where pieces of amber can be found around the villagein sandstone from the banks of the River Buzau.

This piece is known as rumanite, and is extremely popular and expensive.

Doorstop turns out to be meteorite

Something similar happened with a man in Michigan who was using a piece of meteorite as a doorstop. He came to know that it was a space rock worth $100,000 only decades later.