Wednesday 20 July 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List 106 and show info 20JUL2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List 106 and show info 20JUL2011

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 106

July 19, 2011

Note: I just found that I need to be out of the office this afternoon from about 2pm until 4pm or so for an appointment. Sorry for the difficulties that this may cause, but i did not want to wait until after I get back (it would be close to midnight in Europe then)

Dear Collectors,

I have been home only a handful of days over the last month or two. Here, finally, is another small offering. This is likely my last until at least mid to late August as I have a show coming up that will interfere with my next scheduled offering time. This show is the Creede, Colorado show that is held in the community center just north of town (in what appears to be a mine tunnel – neat place to have a mineral show). The show runs 10AM to 5PM August 5th, 6th and 7th. I will be gone August 4th through August 10th, as I hope to try and hike up an over 14,000 ft mountain north of town after the show this year (I never got the chance last year. In fact, I never even got to complete the show. I turned up with chicken pox Friday night and had to pack up and leave town early Saturday morning. I can personally confirm that getting this "childhood" disease as an adult is really rough and dangerous). 

CAMPO DEL CIELO, Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1576.
This is a really nice complete, wire brushed individual. It has a nice thumb-printed texture and has a great "asteroid looking" appearance overall. I have had this one around for quite some time (I think I got it over a year ago in Tucson), but forgot I had it. This is a really solid piece, showing no rust scaling what so ever. The only rust visible are a few tiny spots that are in pockets that the wire brush did not reach when this was originally cleaned. These really nice pieces have come rather hard to get these days, at least at "reasonable" prices.
` 1082.5 gram brushed individual – 105mm x 50mm x 40mm - $270

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
These are a couple brushed individuals from the Florida collection. These both are nice pieces. They have nice shapes (the large is particularly interesting) and do not show any signs of damage from their visit to Florida.
a) 10.6 gram brushed individual – 25mm x 16mm x 6mm - $10 (I had to XRF this one, as it did not have a label when I got it, but it does match with the other Canyon Diablo specimens I have run).
b) 85.6 gram brushed individual – 40mm x 27mm x 25mm - $50

GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
This is a nice little lot of "jewelry" pieces. These are mostly little triangular roughly 1cm sized etched pieces. These do show (at least some piece do) a bit of surface rust (not surprising, these were not coated and spent time in Florida) that should be easy to remove (Bill Mason's stuff would take care of these in seconds, likely). These would be great or the jewelry maker or someone putting together small meteorite display boxes (who wants to have an etched iron in the mix). There are about 20 pieces in this lot.
41.1 grams small etched jewelry pieces - $40

NANTAN, China. Medium octahedrite (IAB). Found 1958.
This stuff sets the gold standard for rusting (at least most pieces, but I have indeed seen some, even in slices, that is stable), BUT that is not a concern with these pieces. These are already "pre-disastered - already fully rusted (the person that owned these in Florida was probably smart to buy these samples for his Nantan though). This bag of oxide fragments is pretty typical of what I see at many retail rock shops and shows. They have a wire-brushed look to some areas and a dark blue-gray fresh fracture look to the remainder of their surface (as if some one went ahead and broke down a larger, originally brushed piece). A good lot for flea market re-sale or gifts to kids.
67.2 grams (a dozen or so pieces) - $15 

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Coarsest octahedrite (IIAB). Fell February 12, 1947.
These two pieces are more consignments from Florida (yes, I am still working through those and likely will be for quite some time). The shrapnel is really nice. It has a good shape and was not harshly brushed, so it still shows some nice dark brown patina in areas. The "individual" is a bit rough (really just a bit over brushed). But, it does have an oriented shape and does show some flow lines on its front side.
a) 129.1 gram shrapnel piece – 65mm x 45mm x 35mm - $55 (note – the sources for this material were asking $.60/g at the Denver Spring Show and were not willing to discount much for a "bulk sale" the mere 3kg they had! This has gotten very hard to find recently. VERY little is coming out now).
b) 32.6 gram oriented individual – 40mm x 25mm x 11mm - $40 

NWA (1289): (H3.8). Found 2002. Tkw = 288grams.
This, like the NWA (2229) listed below, is another Tucson trade that is still listed as "provisional. This one was listed as being assigned to Greg Hupe, who is more than likely the original source of this nice specimen. I can say that I was able to look up a couple pictures of other pieces of this, and it matches perfectly. This shows lots of chondrules of many sizes and colors as well as larger breccia fragments. Wish I had more of this one (I have only this specimen).
2.37 gram complete slice – 28mm x 22mm x 1mm - $30 

NWA (2229), Rumurutiite (R3.8). Found 2004. 
I got a couple pieces of this in a trade in Tucson (they are both the same size – within .1g anyway). Unfortunately I now find that this meteorite has not been officially reported - still listed as "provisional" and the number assigned to Dean Bessey, who I haven't talked with in a long time, unfortunately). Regardless, I can say that both pieces are end pieces from a small individual and are definitely R – chondrite (I could not absolutely be sure it is 3.8 though by simple visual inspection, but I personally see no reason to doubt that part the classification). 
1.3 gram end piece – 13mm x 11mm x 5mm - $30

ALLENDE, Mexico: carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
This would be an ideal piece for thin-sectioning. It is a thick rectangular slice with one edge of fusion crust.
4.8 gram "slice" – 19mm x 14mm x 6mm - $38

DAR AL GANI (476), Libya: Martian basalt (Shergottite). Found 1998. Tkw = 2kg+
Here is a nice little "micro" slice in a gem "box" (one of the actually round plastic containers that you usually see gem stones displayed in). 
.04 gram slice – 5mm x 3mm x 1mm - $40 

SEYMCHAN, Russia: (Pallasite). Found 1967.
This is a nice thin slice with gemmy olivines that transmit light beautifully. This piece is a bit richer on the metal side (probably making up closer to 2/3rds of the area), but the olivine is well distributed, making this an aesthetic piece. A big plus also is that this piece has already been put through a rusting trial (this is another Florida collection consignment) and passed with a perfect score (no rusting on this piece).
15.2 gram thin part slice – 72mm x 35mm x 1mm - $200 

IRGHIZITE: Tektite from Zhamanshin Crater, Russia.
This is a nice bent (U – shaped) individual that has a few (but not many) of the interesting "micro – tektites" adhering to it that originally came from Michael Blood (this is another "Florida collection" consignment). An aesthetic example of this material.
Bent shaped Individual as found – 13mm x 10mm x 3mm - $15

METEOR CRATER SOUVENIR SPOON:
I found this little spoon in an antique store recently. I don't believe that it is really that old (looks quite modern to me). It has the Meteor Crater logo on a 16mm diameter disk at the top end of this small (85mm long0 spoon. 
Small souvenir spoon - $10