He thought it was just a rock, until he discovered it was worth $1.1 million
An old Romanian lady used the stone as a doorstop for years before finding out how much it was worth.
When an elderly Romanian woman from Colti dragged home a 3.5-kilogram (7.7-pound) stone that she found in a stream bed in the southeast region of the country, her best idea was to use it to keep a particularly stubborn hinge on the door pressed open.
For years, nobody realised how much it was worth, not even the jewel thieves that once broke into her house, stealing a few gold items, seeing no value in the doorstop and letting it go.
However, it turns out that the nugget, which is now being kept in the Provincial Museum of Buzau, is one of the biggest intact chunks of amber in the world - and is worth over $1 million.
El País in Spain report that the fossil resin “caught the eye of a relative of the homeowner” who, after inheriting what he first thought to be just a rock from the woman in 1991, “he examined the piece of amber more closely and deduced that it could be a semi-precious stone of great value” before selling it to the Romanian state, which “promptly classified the piece as a national treasure.”
The Romanian authorities consulted with specialists from the Museum of History in Krakow in Poland, who determined the age of the hidden gem: their research showed that it was between 38.5 and 70 million years old. “Its discovery represents a great significance both at a scientific level and at a museum level,” said Daniel Costache, director of the Provincial Museum of Buzau, who is of the opinion that its value is simply incalculable.
The specific specimen was classified as Rumanite, a rare amber variety found only in Romania; it’s deep red colouration contrasts sharply with the more common golden Baltic amber. Rumanite comes from from sandstone deposits within the Buzau River system where it was found. Amber extraction has been going on since the 1920s in the area, high-quality Rumanite specimens are exceptionally rare and therefore worth a high price.
AN OLD WOMAN IN ROMANIA 🇷🇴 USED AN AMBER STONE VALUED AT ONE MILLION EUROS FOR YEARS AS A DOOR STOP -
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) March 9, 2025
An elderly woman in the small town of Colti, southeast of Romania, lived for years without knowing that a stone she used as a simple doorstop was actually a treasure valued at 1… pic.twitter.com/BCUQL6u7oF
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The southeast region of Romania is one of the amber hotspots in the world, with disused mines proving happy hunting grounds for fossilised resin. There have been other huge finds in the area, with its typical vivid red to black colouration prominent and the multi-million-year-old nuggets can house everything from flies to leaves and even animal remains.
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