Imagine the fine this late return could bring. A book checked out 150 years ago has finally been returned to a public library in Australia. It was discovered bricked in a fireplace.
Ross Simmons found the book, “Antiquities of Athens,” during home renovations. It was in a tea crate that was bricked into a sealed fireplace, The Associated Press reported.
The book was published in 1858, about 14 years before Kiama Library opened in 1872. It was No. 508 of the library’s original 1,000 books.
The library records of who borrowed books in the 1870s have been lost, so it is not known if one of Simmons’ relatives was in fact the person who checked it out.
He thinks his great-great-grandfather borrowed it, since he owned the house where the book was found.
“I’m making an assumption. He was in residence in the cottage around about that time and his children were probably too young,” Simmons said, according to the AP.
The penalty for returning a book late, according to the fee structure printed inside the book, was three British pence a week. That means he would owe about 28,000 Australian dollars, or $19,500, in fines.
Luckily, the library no longer collects fines, Australia’s ABC News reported.
One of the rules listed inside said that if you turned in a book late, you had to pay the fine before another could be borrowed.
Other rules included a limit of three books borrowed per household as long as six members of the household were “known to be able to read.” Borrowers could also not be in a “state of intoxication.”
The book will be on display at the library, the AP reported.
“We’re not going to allow it to go back out again. We don’t want to wait another 150 years for this book to be returned,” library manager Michelle Hudson said.
It wasn’t the only book returned to a library really, really late recently.
Conwy Libraries received two books that had been checked out 116 years ago, UPI reported.
Water Griffith Owen borrowed them from the Llanrwst Public Library and Reading Room in 1910. His grandson, only identified as Mr. O’Sullivan, brought him back recently, the library said on Instagram.
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