What the stone hides

An “unnecessary” yellowish rock was found, Spanish journalists reported one of the largest amber nuggets in the worldThe stone was valued at around $1.1 million, making it an extremely luxurious way to hold a door.

In 1991, a deceased woman found a stone in a river near the southeastern town of Kolti. Later, one of her relatives inherited the stone and sold it to the state, suspecting that it might be valuable. Later, experts from the Historical Museum in Krakow (Poland) confirmed that it was an extremely rare amber stone, and its age is estimated to be from the 2000s. 38.5 to 70 million years.

This discovery is of great scientific and museum importance.
– said Daniel Kostas, director of the Buzau Museum, which currently houses the stone.

Interestingly, this extremely rare find was also overlooked by thieves who once broke into the woman’s house to steal the jewellery. They failed to recognise the amber inside the brown piece lying under their feet.

Amber used to support the door / Photo courtesy of Buzau Museum

Amber, the fossilized remains of tree resin, has been considered very valuable since Neolithic times. Although it is usually associated with a single color, it can take on different shades depending on the additional substances it contains. This particular example of amber has a dark tone, so rich that it can appear red, and even black in some places.

The special meaning of amber is that it is transparent and when ancient insects drowned in it millions of years ago, they remained there forever, allowing us to look today at unique representatives of the fauna of the past.