Romanian woman's doorstop turns out to be gem worth Rs 8 crore

A large piece of amber that an elderly Romanian woman used as a doorstop for years was valued at around Rs 8.4 crore recently, EL PAIS reported.

The stone, weighing 3.5 kg, was dug up in Colti, Romania, near a stream bed. The woman, not realising the value of the rock, used it to keep doors open in her house. Later, it was found to be one of the largest pieces of amber -- resin of a tree that's been fossilised for millions of years. This type of stone is also known as rumanit for the reddish hue and is mostly mined around there.

The woman died in 1991, after which the house went to a relative who thought the doorstop could be of more value than was originally thought. After it was sold to the state of Romania, experts from Krakow's Museum of History confirmed that the amber was around 38 to 70 million years old.

"Its discovery represents a great significance both at a scientific level and at a museum level," the director of the Provincial Museum of Buzau told the publication. As per him, the value is incalculable, and the expert claimed it was one of the largest pieces in the world, and the biggest of its kind.

Members of the family, reporting that the old woman's house was broken into, noted that few pieces of gold jewellery were taken but the amber was ignored. The thieves, in a frantic search for valuables 'overlooked the real treasure' in front of their eyes, they said.