An elderly woman in Romania was using a 7-pound rock as a doorstep for decades, but now it turns out that it's one of the largest amber nuggets in the world, valued at around $1.1 million. Ironically, the extremely rare find was also ignored by thieves who broke into her home to steal her jewelry. The unidentified woman found the rock in a nearby river near the southeastern town of Colti. Despite its association with the color "amber," the gem can take on different colors, depending on the substances trapped within it. The stones are also known to have trapped insects or other smaller animals within them millions of years ago, making them of paleontological value. When the woman died, a relative inherited the rock and suspected it may be worth something. He sold the unique find to the Romanian state, which promptly classified the piece as a national treasure. The Romanian authorities handed the nugget over to specialists from the Museum of History in Krakow, Poland, who quickly confirmed it as being an extremely rare amber stone, estimated to be anywhere between 38.5 and 70 million years old. The nugget is now in the possession of the Provincial Museum of Buzau – the county in which the relic was found.
