Tuesday 19 August 2014

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 159

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 159
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com

…………………………………………………LIST 159

August 19, 2014

Dear collectors,

Here is the second batch of pieces that came in with the “old collection”. I also got a few more of the rare witnessed fall fragments/ crumbs in as well and have listed them here to have a more typical 7 or 8 piece offering. 

ARCHIE, Missouri: (H6). Fell August 10, 1932. Tkw = 5.1 kilograms.
This is yet another of my small scraps that seems that very little is “out”. In the Catalog of Meteorites, it seems that a little over 4860 grams of this is listed as being tied up in museum collections.
                .038 gram fragment in capsule – 4mm x 2mm x 2mm - $20
                .13 gram fragment – 8mm x 5mm x 2mm - $50

CANAKKALE, Turkey: (L6). Fell July 1964. Tkw = 4+ kilograms.
This is listed as “several pieces found, the largest weighing 4kg”, implying that a fair amount of this might be out there. However, the collections lists in the Catalog of Meteorites shows that only about 600 grams is preserved in museum collections. I don’t recall ever seeing this name before, so I don’t think that much of the “missing material” has made it into collector’s hands.
                Small fragment in capsule – about 2.5mm x 2mm x 1.5mm - $20
                .058 gram fragment – 5mm x 3mm x 2mm - $40

GLORITTA MOUNTAIN, New Mexico: (Pallasite). Found 1884.
Here is a nice complete individual as found. It has some nice pitting but I cannot distinctly make out any olivine so I’d be hesitant to call this anything more than an iron individual. Regardless, this does have some nice areas of still fresh and flow-lined fusion crust. I remember before Sikhote-Alin came out, this meteorite was the ONLY way a collector could have honest real iron fusion crust for their collections. The previous owner got this piece from Bethany Sciences in January of 1994. This particular specimen is actually the piece Ron used as the picture piece in his catalog at the time. I have a copy of this catalog that will go with this specimen. This also comes with the original Bethany Sciences “Certificate of Authenticity”, though this has been (long ago) hand corrected from a weight of 54.6 grams to 45.6 grams which still seems to be a bit wrong as I keep coming up with 45.1 grams for this specimen.
                45.1 gram complete individual – 45mm x 18mm x 16mm - $650

HENBURY, Australia: Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1931.
Here is a somewhat larger than I typically get specimen. It is nothing special, unfortunately, being mostly a roughly flattened oval shape with only soft thumb-prints. It still has its “as found” appearance - a nice orange brown color. Not a bad piece, just not a sculpture, and priced accordingly.
                71.5 gram natural individual – 45mm x 30mm x 12mm - $110

MOUNT VERNON, Kentucky: (Pallasite). Found 1868, Tkw = 159 kilograms.
The Murchison on my last offering was my big plus surprise in the collection, this one was my big minus surprise unfortunately. I was told it was 13.5 grams and measured 43mm x 36mm x 2mm and was “fresh”. Well, I got 6.4 grams measuring roughly 30mm x 20mm x 2mm that is quite rusty. I think that this would be repairable BUT it came to me in 4 pieces that don’t seem to fit back together completely (and I am usually pretty good at puzzles). This does still have some large crystals that pass light nicely (one looks like it might produce a couple nice but small faceted gems if one were so inclined). I’m selling this one at a loss but someone out there will be able to add a new tough name to their pallasite collection for fairly cheap. The previous owner purchased this specimen from Robert Haag in January of 1994.
                6.4 gram broken, oxidized slice - $100-SOLD

ST. MICHEL, Finland: (L6). Ell July 12, 1910. Tkw = 17 kilograms.
After the last piece I had sold in seconds and many people wanted it (guess I priced it too cheap), I asked the source of that if they had any more. This is what I got. Not a “large” slice like the last one, more like the fragments of other rare falls I have been getting. Anyway, this is a lot of fragments from small crumbs up to around 9mm x 4mm x 2mm. Most of the bigger pieces show nice shock veining as well.
                .42 grams of fragments and crumbs - $15 -SOLD

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Coarsest octahedrite (IIB). Fell February 12, 1947.
This is a complete fusion crusted individual that also happens to be oriented. It is not the perfect dome type of oriented but well oriented none the less. This has a general conical shape (obviously pointed front, generally flat back) that shoes a few elongated (some call “flower petal”) thumbprints on the front and a distinct sharp roll-over rim running completely around the back.
                30.3 gram oriented individual – 30mm x 22mm x 12mm - $75

TISSINT,, Morocco: Martian (Shergottite). Olivine-phyric. Fell July 18, 2011. Tkw = over 7 kilograms.
Here is an amazing piece I got from Matt for a potential customer a month or so ago (that person decided to take a sliced Martian instead of this fragment). It was the Viking lander’s readings of the Martian atmosphere back in the 1970’s that gave us the biggest clue that these meteorites (the SNCs) were from Mars. Those readings showed that gasses trapped inside melt pockets in shock veins of these stones isotopically matched the Martian atmosphere. This particular specimen is incredible for showing these melt pockets. Probably better than 30% of this piece is melt vein material. Even better still, this melt veining is full of gas pockets. Many of these can be easily seen with your eye as the interiors of these pockets is super shiny, compared to the duller black of the general melt material. I am quite certain that this specimen has many more unbroken melt pockets (that likely still contain Martian atmosphere inside them) are yet hiding in the interior of this piece.

                1.6 gram fragment with heavy shock melt veins – 13mm x 11mm x 7mm - $1200