The Michigan man was gifted the rock when he bought his home from a farmer
Sometimes, we use things that we don’t think have value as common household helpers, but what if you went on to find out it was worth tens of thousands of pounds?
One Michigan man was shocked when he found out that a rock he’d been using as a doorstop for decades was worth a whopping $100,000 (£76,000).
The man, who was given the rock back in 1988 by a farmer when he moved into his home, was told that it was a meteorite.
The man bought his farm in Edmore, Michigan, and as the farmer was showing him around the property, he asked about the large rock in the shed, which was being used as a door stop.
The rock fell out of the sky. (Central Michigan University)
The farmer explained that it was a meteorite he found which ‘made a heck of a noise when it hit’ Earth.
He then told the man that it was part of the property, and he could have it.
According to the farmer, he had seen it coming down one night in the 1930s and went on a hunt to find it.
When he did, he decided to dig it out of the crater while it was still warm and kept it all of those years, until he then gifted it to the man in ’88.
After the transfer of ownership, it remained as a handy little tool to keep his door open, and he didn’t think much about its origins until now.
Recently, he thought about how much it would be worth today and took it down to have it valued.
That was when Monaliza Sirbescu, a geology faculty member specialising in Earth and atmospheric sciences at the Central Michigan University, took a peek.
She examined it under x-ray fluorescence and admitted to Daily Mail she ‘could tell right away that this was something special’.
That’s because the meteorite was an iron-nickel combination, with 88 percent iron and 12 percent nickel.
Now, nickel isn’t something you typically find on Earth, making it a brilliant discovery.
Normally, when you find iron meteorites, they generally are made up of about 95 percent iron, and the rest will be heavy metals and nickel like gallium or gold.
But this was 12 percent pure nickel.
Sirbescu said: “It’s the most valuable specimen I have ever held in my life, monetarily and scientifically.
Researcher Monaliza Sirbescu with the rock (Central Michigan University)
“Just think, what I was holding is a piece of the early solar system that literally fell into our hands.”
The owner not only used it as a door stop for 30 years, but he also allowed his children to take it to school for show and tell.Since being evaluated, it has been named the Edmore meteorite, thanks to the area it fell.
