Woman's doorstop revealed to be 1 million euro amber treasure

A remarkable find in Romania has revealed that a simple doorstop, used for decades by a woman in the village of Colți, was actually a piece of amber valued at approximately 1 million euros.

The woman discovered the 3.5-kilogram "stone" in a stream bed and brought it home, where it served the humble purpose of holding a door open for many years. Its true nature remained unrecognized, even by jewel thieves who once broke into her home.

Following her death in 1991, a relative who inherited the house became suspicious that the doorstop might be more than just an ordinary rock. Upon learning its potential value, the relative sold the amber to the Romanian state. It was subsequently sent for expert evaluation at the Historical Museum in Krakow, Poland.

Experts estimate the amber to be between 38 and 70 million years old. This particular type of amber, known locally as "Rumenit," is found in the sandstone near the Buzău River in Romania and is prized for its deep reddish hues. The discovery is considered scientifically and museologically significant.

The piece of amber has been declared a Romanian national treasure and has been housed at the Buzău County Museum since 2022, in the same county where it was originally found. This story echoes a similar case in Michigan where a man used a rock as a doorstop, only to later discover it was a meteorite worth $100,000.