Posted on 09/14/2024 7:52:22 PM PDT by Red Badger
The 3.5-kilogram amber nugget is the biggest piece of rumanite ever found. (Buzău County Museum)
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They say one's trash is another's treasure, but a chunk of 'rock' used to keep a door open for decades is a treasure by pretty much any metric you might care to use.
The 3.5 kilogram (7.7 pound) stone was found in a stream bed in southeast Romania by an elderly woman, who brought it home and put it to use.
Her discovery turned out to be one of the biggest intact chunks of amber in the world, according to a report by El Pais. Its value? Somewhere in the region of €1 million – around $US1.1 million.
Amber is tree resin from millions of years in the past. Over time, the highly viscous substance fossilizes into a hard, warm-hued material widely recognized as a gemstone.
In Romania, pieces of amber can be found around the village of Colti in sandstone from the banks of the River Buzau, where it has been mined since the 1920s. Known as rumanite, this amber is famed and prized for its wide array of deep, reddish hues.
The elderly woman who found this particular rumanite nugget lived in Colti, where it remained performing a function so humble that it was missed even by jewel thieves who once targeted the home, reports say.
The chunk of amber. (Buzău County Museum)
After the woman died in 1991, the relative who inherited her home suspected the doorstop might be more than meets the eye. On learning what he had, he sold the amber to the Romanian state, which had it appraised by experts at the Museum of History in Krakow in Poland.
According to these experts, the amber is likely between 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.
Classified as a national treasure of Romania, the nugget has had a home at the Provincial Museum of Buzau – the county in which the relic was found – since 2022.
The discovery resembles that of a man in Michigan, who kept a large piece of rock as a doorstop, only to find out decades later that he was keeping his doors in place with a meteorite worth $100,000.
A chunk of amber worth over a million dollars isn't a bad score, either, really. Just imagine how many doorstops you could buy.
Yabbut, does it have a fly trapped in it?
Whatever it costs its worth it to get rid of him. The Board of Trustees meets in a few hours on Sunday Morning. We all know why they’ve called a meeting....
What could that meme even mean?
The elephant mosquito was encased in amber as I recall
That’s how they re-created the dinosaurs - by some blood from the insect in the amber
so.....Newman! (was smuggling embryos in the shaving cream cans)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6FXdloCUOM
[About 20 pounds worth of blasting caps!]
Well, I guess that would hold the door open...
There’s a rock on the porch of our family homestead that has been there for decades — IIRC, even from when Mom was a kid. It’s transparent green with white things that look like mini marshmallows in it.
My brother inherited the place in April; maybe he’ll check it out. It’s probably manmade, but who knows?
At over a million dollars I wouldn’t care if it had a badger trapped in it!....................
Smithsonite – ZnCO3
https://rockchasing.com/green-rocks-minerals-and-gem/
What a fabulous movie that is. He stole it from Eastwood.
L
Looks very similar. Ours is lighter green and more transparent, but I know there can be so many variations within the same Rick type. Thanks.
:^D
Dyin ain’t much of a livin boy
That sounds like Quartz or some type of Jade.
I have a small slab of Rose Quartz in the garden, translucent, with whites, greys and pinks when the sun hits it. That quartz is supposed to bring good luck to the owner.
If you live anywhere near Lake Woebegon, it's probably a petrified jello salad from a Lutheran church supper. Are there any bits that look like carrot shreds in it?
That’s hilarious! I didn’t know the Lutherans did the same kind of “fellowship suppers” as the Baptists. The gross Jell-O salads with cottage cheese and carrot shreds ... 🤮
Lake Woebegon Days was so funny. Too bad the guy was a liberal whack job.
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