Tuesday 19 March 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - LIST 223 RHOR COLLECTION: Part 2, vol. 2

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487 
                            LIST 223

March 19, 2019

RHOR COLLECTION: Part 2, vol. 2
                                                                                                                               BASSIKOUNOU, Mauritania: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell October 16, 2006. Tkw = 100+ kg.
This is a piece that was very obviously picked up right after the fall. It has super fresh black fusion crust. This isn’t an item I can call a complete individual as it does have a large (52mm x 22mm) fresh break. I can’t see any signs of fusion crust on the break or any crust roll-over on the edges so I suspect this is an impact with the ground break. The remainder of the stone is around 2/3 primary crust and 1/3 secondary crust the covers about ½ of the 42mm x 20mm late atmospheric break. A nice fresh specimen that has a neat story to tell. This comes with a metal stand up on its own meteoritelabels.com label.
    72.6 gram ½+ individual – 55mm x 25mm x 23mm - $350

BONDOC, Philippines: Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found 1956. Tkw = 888.6 kilograms.
 Nininger was the one that brought this meteorite to light. It was fond in the jungle and probably recognized mostly due to its large size. This is an end piece/ cut fragment of a silicate nodule from this meteorite. I don’t see any fresh metal hiding amongst the silicates but this does attract a magnet fairly well. This comes with a Michael Cottingham Meteorite Collection label.
    40.5 gram end piece of silicate nodule – 47mm x 30mm x 15mm - $150

ESQUEL, Argentina: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1951. Tkw = 755kg.
This is actually a really nice part slice that passes light through pretty much all of its crystals but a few small ones in one cluster. I actually offerd this one last year but have decided to offer it at a new lower price (everyone tells me how they are “getting” $30, $40, $50/g out of their Esquel but I have never been able to do it). This is in a membrane box (though I have taken it out for the group photo), comes with a metal meteoritelabels.com label as well as a Southern Minerals Meteorites & Fossils paper label.
    38.5 gram part slice – 90mm x 50mm x 2mm - $1000

GIBEON, Namibia: Iron. Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
This is a nice complete individual. For the most part, it looks to be pretty much as found (nice orange brown to chocolate brown) but may have had a light brushing in the past (it has a hint of shininess). I haven’t seen a small compete piece of Gibeon in quite a long time. I am surprised that this didn’t sell (the Chinese seem to be buying up all the Gibeon they can find) but then it was kind of lost in the display case full of more rare, collector type specimens. 
    40.7 gram complete natural individual – 55mm x 25mm x 8mm - $100

NWA (2696): HED. (Howardite). Found 2004. Tkw = 6.5 kilograms.
This is a part slice that Linton got from Michael Cottingham (it comes with a Cottingham Meteorite Collection label). It is a fairly typical howrdite (nothing special). It looks quite similar to the NWA (1929) pieces I have in color and texture but seems to have more and smaller breccia fragments. About 50% of the edge is natural/ crusted and the remainder are cut. This is in a 2” x 2” plastic display box:
    7.04gram part slice – 28mm x 22mm x 5mm - $100

NORTON COUNTY, Kansas: Enstatite achondrite (Aubrite). Fell ebruary 18, 1948. 
This is a fragment the Linton bought from me (and I had it on consignment from someone else) as the writing on the UNM Institute of Meteoritics label looks to be mine (I got a number of blank labels that I needed to fill in weight, name, and specimen number (this has a UNM painted catalog number on it) with the specimens back then). What is really neat about this piece is that a lot of fragments (likely low-iron olivine) really light up bright yellow under my filtered UV light (the Convoy S2 I seem to misplaced but now, thanks to John Kashuba, have a Torcia 365 (365nm wavelength) light. I am fairly certain that this will sell quickly. For those of you that want a piece of Norton that shows this fluorescence, fear not, I do have an assortment of pieces I just picked up of somewhat similar sizes for $30/g).
    7.2 gram fragment that fluoresces – 25mm x 15mm x 14mm - $200

TAZA (NWA 859): Iron. Plessitic octahedrite (ungrouped). Found 2001.
This is a complete individual that has some adhering dirt and caliche but generally shows much nicer fusion crust than most Taza pieces this size do. What flow lines are present are weak but one point has a kind of bullet-head look to it so this specimen spent at least some time with this point forward during its fall. This comes with a “Meteorite Madness” (Bob Cucciara) label.
    27.9 gram natural, crusted individual – 25mm x 20mm x 12mm - $170

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Iron. Coarsest octahedrite (IIB). Fell February 12, 1947.
I have two nice fusion crusted pieces to offer here. The smaller piece (22.0g) has a nice sculpted, fine thumb-printed shape. Its crust looks pristine original (does not look to have been brushed, chemically cleaned, gun blued, etc) as well. The larger piece is blocky (likely a single kamacite plate that broke free during the fall) and has the classic bullet-head shape. The crust on this looks pretty original on this as well, though a tiny hint of shininess might mean that this has been (very lightly) brushed at some point in the past. I don’t see flow lines on this piece but the shape clearly shows that it was oriented for a substantial part of its fall. This larger piece comes with a metal meteoritelabels.com label.
a) 22.0 gram nice sculpted individual – 32mm x 18mm x 18mm - $100
b) 53.5 gram oriented individual – 35mm x 20mm x 15mm - $200