Tuesday 30 August 2016

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 195 Denver show info, last of Lang Collection Items

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 195 Denver show info, last of Lang Collection Items

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
……………………………………………………LIST 195
August 30, 2016

Dear collectors,

Here is the last of my Lang Collection pieces (all three of them) plus some Allende and Tissint.

DENVER SHOW INFORMATION:
I can’t believe that it is already that time. I will be leaving next Wednesday morning (Sept 7th) and won’t be back home until September 21st (this show is slowing getting stretched out into another Tucson. Next year will be even worse). For this year, I will be in my usual location: Ramada Plaza (4849 Bannock street) Room 224. I should be open by mid afternoon Saturday the 10th. I will be open at 10AM the rest of the show days (through Sunday the 18th). I will open most evenings until 9PM or so (later if people are still around) but will close early (6PM) on the last day (Sunday the 18th) and probably either the Friday or Saturday before for the COMETS party (I am pretty sure they are having one again this year, I just don’t know the day). The phone number for the hotel is (303) 292-9500 and I am in room 224 (from the 10th through the 18th).

News about next year: If you want to experience the wandering hotel rooms set up as show rooms thing but not to the huge, often overwhelming degree as Tucson, this show is your last chance (at least in Denver). I had heard rumors that I would be loosing my show room (which I have had for around 28 years now) while attending the Colorado Springs show back in early June. Turns out that this is no rumor. I got the official notification that the Ramada is no longer welcoming the show a few days ago  The only option I am left with is taking a space at the venue that the spring show ended up in – Crowne Plaza way out east (15 miles I think) in a HUGE ballroom environment. I did tour the place during the spring show hoping to scope out a room I could set up in but that is not going to work. The rooms are far away from the bulk of the show (and somewhat hard to find). Plus they are really small and extremely crowded with furniture. I think about the only people who MIGHT be able to set up a valid (business wise) display in one of these rooms would be the gemstone dealer that only needs a card table and a single brief case of inventory to have a successful show. Thankfully, my somewhat early warning has allowed me to reserve a private meeting room at this new show. It is a bit of a ways from the main ball rooms but it will allow me to stay open as late as I want (and there will be a number of other dealers filling other similar rooms in the area so I won’t be completely alone). Anyway, I will certainly try to fully notify everyone once I know fully what this change brings.

ONE LAST NOTE: I do need to be gone part of this afternoon so please understand if there is a delay in my response to any questions/ order requests.

ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
Here are a couple more really fresh/ early recovery pieces. One is an angular fragment and the other is a fairly thick (and somewhat wedged) slice. Unfortunately, neither has any fusion crust but they are nice pieces none the less. The slice is nothing special really but it does show lots of chondrules, small to medium sized CAIs and some obvious gold colored troilite inclusions. The fragment though has a couple interesting features: a nice irregular CAI (around 5mm x 7mm) and a weird round (5mm) inclusion that is mostly clear crystals of some kind inside and surrounded by troilite around its outside.
a) 35.0 grams fresh fragment – 55mm x 40mm x 10mm - $350
b) 35.7 gram slice – 60mm x 37mm x 7mm - $360

NWA (978): Rumaruttite (R3.8), S3, W2. Purchased August 1, 2001. Tkw = 722 grams.
For awhile, R chondrites were fairly easy to come by. Not so these days. Now they are quite expensive even fresh out of the field (unstudied) if they are recognized by the sellers (which is not particularly hard given their chondrule rich texture and complete lack of magnetic attraction). Most R chondrites are some shade of brown inside. This particular one is distinctly different. It does have the numerous chondrules and sulfides (not fresh metal) visible, but these are set in a medium to dark gray matrix. I have only two different specimens here. The smallest is actually two natural fragments. The largest is a natural fragment that has a roughly 25mm x 10mm polished face. These specimens are Lang Collection pieces and are in Riker boxes so shipping will be a bit higher for people that want to keep the boxes they are in.
a) 3.0 grams; 2 natural fragments (.7g, 2.3 g) - $60
b) 14.6 gram natural fragment with polished face – 30mm x 18mm x 15mm - $250

NWA (1208): Ordinary chondrite (H5), S2, W3. Found 1999. Tkw = 368 grams.
I can’t be certain, but there is a pretty good change that this could be the “main mass”. A single 368gram stone was found and 63 grams were given for classification. This leaves a total of just over 300 grams of remaining material. This particular specimen represents 36% of the remaining material. So, unless the other remaining material was left as a large cut fragment (no or few slices removed) then this should be the main mass. This piece is a cut fragment. The Bulletin description merely mentions “well defined chondrules” for features and this does indeed show a good number of nice round chondrules set in a medium to dark brown matrix. The backside is mostly old natural fracture surface bit there is a roughly 50mm x 15mm or so patch of fairly nice crust along one edge. This is yet another Lang collection piece in a Riker so shipping will be a bit more for those that want to keep it in the riker box it is in (you will get the label regardless)
110 gram cut fragment – 60mmx 40mm x 15mm - $80

TISSINT, Morocco: Martian (Shergottite). Fell July 18, 2011. Tkw = over 7 kilograms.
This is a meteorite that I thought we might be seeing lots of pieces of for many years. Nope, the stuff got pretty much picked out and distributed in a big hurry. Not much of it is available these days (and pretty much none is from the Moroccan sources I have). I got these pieces from a collector that, wisely, bought them when this material was readily available. These are all nice pieces and each has its own special features that I will try to briefly describe below.
1) Slices:
a) .15 grams part slice – 9mm x 5mm x 1.5mm - $105
b) 1.04 gram part slice – 22mm x 12mm x 1.5mm - $700 – some crust along edge, many small (1 to 2mm) melt zones.
c) 2.39 gram full slice – 30mmx 20mm x 1.5 mm - $1600 – 2/3 of edge crusted. Interior shows a couple large black melt zones containing gas bubbles.
d) 3.37 gram part slice – 35mm x 18mm x 2mm - $2200 – has many nice melt areas and veins. Some gas bubbles, one of which goes completely through the slice.
2) End pieces:
a) 1.99 grams – 20mm x 18mm x 4mm - $1300 – back is around 60% plus fusion crusted.
b) 3.82 grams – 28mm x 27mm x 3mm - $2500 – back mostly late natural fracture but edges have some crust.
3) Individual: This piece was listed as a “fragment” on the hand-written label that came with it. This is clearly more of a nice individual. There are a few minor chipped edges/ points that are clearly breaks. The largest obvious “break” is about 15mm x 5mm. Careful inspection though reveals the presence of very light (and spotty) fusion crust covering most of this area. So, it is a break but might be better classified as a zone of (very) light secondary fusion crust. The remainder of the stone is covered in nice shiny black fusion crust.
3.71 gram individual – 15mm x 12mm x 12mm - $2500