Sep 12, 2024 13:00:00

The world's largest piece of amber, worth over 150 million yen, is being used as a door stopper for a private home, and even burglars are escaping it.

Some people use stones they find on the roadside as door stoppers, but sometimes the door stoppers turn out to be

meteorites or unexploded bombs . It has been recently reported that a stone used as a door stopper in a Romanian home was a piece of amber, one of the largest in the world, worth about 1 million euros (about 157 million yen ).

Elderly Romanian woman used amber nugget worth over $1 million as a doorstop for decades | International | EL PAÍS English
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-09-03/elderly-romanian-woman-used-amber-nugget-worth-over-1-million-as-a-doorstop-for-decades.html

Rock Used as Doorstop For Decades Turns Out to Be Worth Over $1 Million : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/rock-used-as-doorstop-for-decades-turns-out-to-be-worth-over-1-million

A woman living in the village of Kortzi in Buzau County , southeastern Romania, had been using a deep reddish stone she had found in a riverbed as a door stopper for many years. The woman did not think the stone had any value, and a burglar who had broken into her house had not even noticed the stone, instead stealing other cheap jewelry.

When the woman passed away in 1991, her relatives inherited the house and the door stopper. At first, they thought it was just a stone, but after further investigation they realized it might be a type of amber.

After purchasing the amber, Romanian authorities sent it to the Krakow Historical Museum in Poland, which has a section dedicated to the study of semi-precious stones . The Krakow Historical Museum quickly confirmed the amber's authenticity and estimated it to be between 38.5 and 70 million years old.

The photo below shows the amber that the woman actually used as a door stopper. It has a deep reddish hue and weighs a whopping 3.5 kg. Amber is a fossilized natural resin, and is characterized by its warm colors such as yellow, amber, and reddish brown.

'This discovery is of great significance both at the scientific and museum levels,' said Daniel Kostache, director of the Buzau County Museum, where the amber is stored at the time of writing.

According to the Spanish daily El País, which reported the story, the piece is one of the largest in the world and is valued at around 1 million euros. It was quickly declared a national treasure of Romania.

The village of Korzi is known as an amber producing area, and has an Amber Museum which displays the amber produced there and documents related to mining. It also had an amber mine there until it was closed in 1948.