Once upon a time in the small village of Colți, Romania, an elderly woman discovered what she thought was just a heavy rock while walking near a local stream. She brought it home and put it to practical use — not as art or jewellery, but simply as a doorstop to keep her door open.

For decades, that unassuming stone sat by her door, quietly holding it open as guests and family passed through — never once giving a hint of its remarkable nature. Even when thieves once broke into her home, they overlooked this rock, stealing only a few modest pieces of jewellery.

After the woman passed away in 1991, a relative inherited her house and began to wonder whether that “doorstop” might be more than it seemed. Having it examined by experts proved his hunch right: the stone was not just any rock — it was an exceptionally large nugget of amber, a fossilized tree resin that had formed millions of years ago.

This amber chunk weighed about 3.5 kilograms (7.7 pounds) and is believed to be one of the largest intact pieces of amber in the world — possibly between 38 and 70 million years old.

Today the specimen is considered a national treasure of Romania and is displayed in the Provincial Museum of Buzău. Estimates suggest its value is around €1 million (about US$1.1 million) — a truly astonishing amount for what was once a humble doorstop