An ordinary-looking stone that served as a simple doorstop in a Romanian home for decades turned out to be a rare and valuable treasure. Experts estimated its value at about a million dollars, Science Alert writes.
The unusual story began many years ago, when an elderly resident of the village of Colti in southeastern Romania found a large, warm, honey-colored stone on the bank of the local Buzau River. The woman brought it home and found a practical use for it — she used a heavy cobblestone to keep the door from slamming shut.
It would have continued to serve as a modest household item, if not for one “but.” After the owner’s death in 1991, her relative, who inherited the house, suddenly wondered — was this nondescript door stop really that simple? She decided to show the find to experts.
It turned out that it was not a stone at all, but a giant piece of fossil resin — amber. Its weight was 3.5 kilograms. This type of amber, which is called rumanite, is famous for its deep reddish hues and is highly valued around the world. But most importantly, it is one of the largest single pieces of amber ever found in the world.
Experts at the Historical Museum in Krakow, Poland, where the relic was sent for evaluation, determined that its age is between 38 and 70 million years.
