Thursday 3 September 2015

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 178 and Denver show info 2015

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 178 and Denver show info 2015

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487

…………………………………………………..LIST 178

September 2, 2015

Dear collectors,

Here is a small offering (that was supposed to go out yesterday but I took a bit too long on the mountain gathering mushrooms that “morning”) that I am mostly doing so I can also send out information on the Denver show that is far too close around the corner.

I will be gone from home from the morning of September 10th until probably around Wednesday the 23rd. The show itself opens on Sunday the 13th. For this year (more notes on this below) I will be in my usual room: 224 at what is now the RAMADA plaza (4849 Bannock St.). I will be setting up on Saturday the 12th and there is a chance that I might be open on Saturday afternoon (assuming they haven’t re-modeled the room yet again requiring me to spend time hunting down odd sized tables to borrow). I will be open the rest of the days (Sunday the 13th through Sunday the 20th) at 10AM. I will be open in the evenings at least until around 9pm to 10pm (depending upon if people are actually still visiting/ wandering the halls). I don’t know if I’ll be closing early on Friday (the 18th) this year. The place where COMETS used to hold their auction/ social event is no longer available so I think the event may have been canceled this year (but please do your own research to be sure I am not wrong on this). I also fear though that there is a chance that this might end up being my last Denver show for a bit as well. The hotel has gotten new owners and it seems those new owners either don’t want the hassle of shows in their hotel or have gotten greedy to the point that no one can afford it any more. The spring show (which is in the same hotel) that I enjoyed because it was the one show I got to wander around and goof-off as a buyer, has been canceled as no show agreement could be reached for future years. IF this happens to the fall show as well, I suspect that it would take quite some time and maneuvering to find a spot in a different venue (God, I REALLY don’t want to do a coliseum type show – no chance for after hours visiting and such).

Anyway, on to the offering:

ALBIN, Wyoming. (Pallasite). Found 1915. Tkw = 40+ kilograms.
Here are a couple pieces that are clearly left over from research work at some point (likely long ago). They are slices that are set in a block of resin with one side highly polished for research work. The resin block on the larger piece had a corner broken off but the slice is undamaged. Both show a very nice mix of metal and angular olivine crystals (of widely varying sizes).
a) slice in resin – 20mm x 15mm x 3mm - $40
b) slice in resin – 28mm x 16mm x 7mm - $100

ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3). Fell February 8, 1969.
Here is a small assortment of pieces I got from an old research collection. All pieces are very fresh but only the largest (the end piece) has crust. The crust on this piece covers probably 85 to 90% of the back side (just the usual edge/ corner chips).
a) two fragments (largest 12mm x 9mm x 4mm) - .8 grams - $12
b) 7.9 gram fragment (fresh but no crust) – 18mm x 16mm x 16mm - $100
c) 21.0 gram end piece with nice crust – 27mm x 22mm x 18mm - $250

CAPE YORK, Greenland: Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1818.
This is a nicely etched elongate bar specimen. Three edges are definitely cut with the fourth likely being a break along an inclusion (as opposed to a genuine exterior edge). For a time some years (10 plus?) this stuff was fairly easy to come by. I have seen very little of this meteorite available in recent times though.
6.13 gram etched slice – 25mm x 10mm x 3mm -$40

DIMMITT, Texas: (H3.7). Found 1942, recognized 1950.
This is a small complete slice I sold the previous owner back in December of 1993. About 2/3 of the natural edge is weathered fusion crust with the remainder appearing to be an old natural break. I think that this piece was cut from a stone that is a bit less weathered than most. The interior is lighter brown than most I have seen. There is also a fair amount of metal and troilite still clearly visible as well.
9.0 gram complete slice – 47mm x 16mm x 3mm - $30

ST. MICHEL, Finland: (L6). Fell July 12, 1910. Tkw = 16.45 kilograms.
I have had a number of specimens of this over the past few years, but this is probably the largest (or close to it). This is a long rectangular part slice (with two cut edges and two (the shorter sides) looking to be natural. This piece is really shows a nice breccia texture. It has lots of lighter colored rounded fragments from tiny up to 25mm in size. The areas between are dark shocked) gray.
21.0 gram part slice – 55mm x 22mm x 5mm - $400

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Coarsest octahedrite (IIAB). Ell February 12, 1947.
This is natural shrapnel fragment that the previous owner bought from Robert Haag back in 1991 (unfortunately, it didn’t come with the original R.H. label). I suspect that he paid a pretty high price for it. Back then, Sikhote-Alin was very hard to come by (so much so that Alain Carion featured a piece on the cover of his first book). It first came available for around $10/g or so (for shrapnel – which was all that was available). As the supply increased, the price dropped to around $3/g for awhile (eventually dropping far lower when the flood gates really opened up some years later). I suspect that it was around this $3/g that was paid or this piece. Anyway, it is a nice piece that shows a distinct shrapnel texture.
21.2 gram natural shrapnel piece – 35mm x 16mm x 15mm - $20

SPRINGWATER, Canada: (Pallasite). Found 1931. Tkw = 68+ kilograms.
I know a lot of pieces have been found in recent years but this piece is clearly from the first recovered specimen. It has the typical old museum style thick cut style (not the thin – see through olivine most collectors demand these days. Those while pretty can be hard to keep intact long term if not stored and handled very carefully). One side of this slice is polished and the other is etched. I spray coated this piece as it had nothing (but the bag it was in) protecting it before.
15.9 gram slice – 25mm x 23mm x 7mm - $250