A churchgoer appealed for experts to help identify what she thought was a vintage bottle stopper with ‘gold coating’ – only to discover that it was actually a butt plug.

The woman, known only as Jane, from Indiana, US, was sent snaps of the 4.5 inch sex toy by her sister after a friend found it unearthed in her garden following a heavy storm.

The keen Christians didn’t know what the object was, so Jane posted the pics and a description of it onto a glass collectors Facebook group in the hope of finding out.

Eagle-eyed members quickly realised what was in the pictures, and their responses left the two sisters ‘cracking up’.

The woman who found the item, on the other hand, was horrified when she was told what the glass object really was, but she’s since been able to see the funny side.

After discovering the item’s real use, Jane said: “I am thankful I know nothing of this ‘world’ that uses products such as this and quite frankly, I don’t want to know.

“Well my sister and I are both cracking up! But the fact she picked it up and handled it… I don’t think there’s enough soap to wash away that image.”

The post has since had more than 400 likes and 400 comments, and the group admin even had to disable comments to keep up with moderating them.

Jane’s original post said: “Got a friend of my sister that came across a solid glass piece. Since she can’t figure it out she reached out to me and now I’m reaching out to all of you!

“Hoping to get an idea of what it is. Only thing coming to mind is either a bottle stopper for a decanter or possibly a chess piece.

“4.5 inches tall 1.5 Dia at fat part and 1.75 at base. No significant scratches anywhere does look to have reflective gold coating on it.”

One member replied: “So are we calling this a$$ glass?” Another commented: “It’s a stopper… just not for a bottle.” One went even further and said: “It’s a stopper alright, but think orifice not bottle.”

The item looks similar to a clear glass butt plug sold online by Lovehoney, which the sex toy giant calls the Lovehoney Pure Pleasure Sensual Glass Butt Plug.

Jane, her sister and her sister’s friend are all very involved with their churches and Jane doesn’t want to be identified to avoid ‘putting a black eye’ on those relationships.

The 61-year-old replied to comments suggesting the post was a joke to confirm none of them had any idea what the object was.

Responding to a comment on her post questioning if it all really happened, Jane said: “It’s real the three of us have clearly lived sheltered lives!

“While the friend my sister goes to church with was immediately horrified when I shared back to my sister who then shared with her, she is now laughing with the rest of us.”