Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A Florida couple clearing out a house they bought made an unexpected discovery: a suspected U.S. military Medal of Honor from the Civil War.

Erin and Michael Kara said they bought the Orlando home with the intention of flipping it and they set about clearing out the belongings from the previous owner, who had died.


The couple said they opened a box and found what they believe to be a Medal of Honor dating from Abraham Lincoln's presidency.

The medal bears the name Mark Wood, and online records indicate a man by that name was one of the first-ever Medal of Honor recipients in the 1860s.

"We called it the treasure house when we were working on it because there were so many treasures in there," Erin Kara told WKMG-TV. "When I saw it, I didn't even know what it was. But to look it up -- and I mean, I researched a lot -- to get the background, you know, education on it, from finding it was pretty cool."

The couple said they are considering donating the medal to a museum.

"Just the uniqueness of it and, you know, after researching, I saw there was only, I think, 3,500 ever awarded, and Abraham Lincoln would have been the one to give this one out, so it's kind of a big deal," Erin Kara said.