Thea Jourdan bought a brooch at a local junk shop for $27.56 and gifted it to her four-year-old daughter Imogen, who loved to play dress-up. Imogen donned the brooch countless times, pretending that she was a royal princess; little did Jourdan and her daughter realize that the brooch was actually a piece of early-19th-century jewelry, likely to have been part of a Russian Czarina's tiara or royal necklace.

The 20-carat topaz stone was estimated to be worth around $5,513.