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.
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Chief Dan George: “It’s not fer eatin’, it’s fer lookin’ through.”
You boys gonna pull them pistols or whistle Dixie?
“Pa! I got the amber right here, Pa.”
If there’s any mosquitoes in it, do NOT extract their DNA!
Most do not know that during Colonial US times a “rock” was discovered used as a doorstop in 1799 at the first gold mine in the US at Mecklenburg County (present day Charlotte, NC) The first piece of gold found near this mine,by a boy of about twelve years old the son of John Reed the proprietor of the Reed Gold mine. The discovery was accidental: The boy in the company of his brother and sister went fishing in a small stream, called Meadow Creek and saw a yellow substance shining in the water. He went in and picked it up, and found it to be some kind of metal, and carried it home. Mr. Reed examined it but it was an unknown type in this part of the country at the time. Mr. Reed kept the piece for several years on his house floor, as a door stop. In 1802, he went to the market and showed it to a jeweler who immediately told him that it was gold. He asked Mr. Reed to leave it with him and that he would flux it. When Mr. Reed returned he was presented with a large bar of gold about six or eight inches long. The jeweler asked Mr. Reed what he would take for the bar. Not knowing the value he asked $3.50 and sold it. In 1803 Mr. Reed and some partners found the same type of “rock” a gold chunk weighing 26 pounds. It turned out the the entire subsurface of this creek was very rich in gold. Even so the first mint to certify this gold was not the US, but a private firm known for probity and specificity certifying quality. These coins minted are extremely valuable and were preferred for years vs. Union or Confederate gold (bypassing governments who played around with values as was suspected then in mid 1800s).
Fascinating bit of US money history- a gold block used for a doorstop. Stuff of dreams— like this chunk of Amber. Amazing Nature.
Fascinating....................
How many prehistoric animals’ DNA are trapped in mosquito blood in that rock?
Ping
Richard Feynman described, during the Manhattan Project they were testing different metals to find one with the right neutron properties. At one point they wanted to test gold, so they ordered a 6 inch gold sphere. The powers-that-be pointed out that the sphere would be 80 pounds of gold and would cost a fortune, but they ended up delivering it from Fort Knox. Gold didn’t have the required properties, so the scientists ended up using the sphere as a doorstop for a while.
Thanks Red Badger.
Well that’s 1/26th of Sunbelt Billy’s buyout.
Thanks!
the historic Bechtler Mint in Rutherfordton, NC [private mint]
Did a job many years ago and needed some important supplies and was dreading the five-hour drive from the small town to the big town to pick it up (and then back again). The guys said “Oh - we can ship it to you.”
“Um - I don’t think so.”
“Don’t worry, it will be fine.”
So I told the little motel that I was getting a package that was valuable and when they got it to hold it in the office for me as it was expensive.
“Sure - no problem.”
Get back in from the field the next evening and ask for my package. The guy goes looks in the room behind the counter and it wasn’t there. Another guy points to the front door - “Is that it?”
Yep - that was it. Holding the front door open so the air could flow through. About 20 pounds worth of blasting caps!
That’s a tasty doorstop!!
In my day, you could buy a candy bar for a rock. A rock!
I never get that *lucky*.
If I picked up a rock, it would just be a rock.
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