Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 124 - set of Buchwalds, Berthoud, etc.

Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 124 - set of Buchwalds, Berthoud, etc.

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 124
July 16, 2012

Dear Collectors,
Normally, this offering should go out tomorrow. I have to leave town yet again Thursday morning, so I thought it a good idea to get this out as early as possible (I had not finished preparing the Belmont pieces until yesterday afternoon). I'll likely be back in full operation on Tuesday the 24th.

I will also be out of town August 2nd through the 7th or 8th for the Creede Mineral show. This runs the 3rd, 4th and 5th (the first Friday, Saturday, Sunday of August). This will also delay my first (only?) August listing as well (assuming I pull out enough new stuff to have one anyway).

BELMONT, Wisconsin: (H6), veined. Found 1958. Tkw = 25.3 kilograms.
This was a single stone ploughed up by a farmer. It has been around for quite awhile, but I think these may be the first pieces of this meteorite I have ever had to sell. This is nice material with lots of metal in a pleasant mottled medium to dark brown matrix. These specimens were cut from a piece that was traded out of UNM and come with a UNM Institute of Meteoritics label.
1) Slices:
a) 5.0 grams – 18mm x 15mm x 5mm - $75
b) 8.6 grams – 30mm x 19mm x 4mm - $129
c) 15.1 grams – 35mm x 27mm x 5mm - $225 – one edge crusted
d) 33.4 grams – 50mm x 36mm x 5mm - $500 – one edge crusted/ museum numbered.
e) 82.6 grams – 85mm x 46mm x 5mm - $1200 – 50% of edge crusted.

BERTHOUD, Colorado: (Eucrite), monomict breccia. Fell October 5, 2004. Tkw = 960 grams.
This was one of those "kind of snuck in" falls. There were no reports of a huge fire- ball, sonic booms and such. A simple whistling noise and a thud was observed by a couple (Andy and Megan Clifford) just after they left their house. Dust kicked up in a near by horse pen led them to the spot where this small stone was found buried just below the surface. I remember seeing the news reports on this and thought I would never see/ have any of this one. I recall they were "accepting offers" with a starting price of $250,000 – or more per gram for the whole chunk than what I am asking on nice finished thin slices. This is very fresh (obviously) and fairly fragile stuff. Accordingly, each of these pieces in a membrane box. These came from UNM and I have "official" UNM Institute of Meteoritics labels to fill out and send with each one of these.
1) Slices:
a) .43 grams – 10mm x 10mm x 2mm - $110
b) .76 grams – 15mm x 11mm x 2mm - $190
c) 1.25 grams – 20mm x 13mm x 2mm - $310
d) 3.15 grams – 25mm x 24mm x 2mm - $780 – has 15mm of crust along one edge.
e) 4.70 grams – 40mm x 27mm x 2mm - $1150

DIMMITT (?), Texas: (H3.7). Found 1942. Tkw = 200+ kilograms.
I put the (?) on this one because I strongly suspect that a couple of these (the two smaller specimens listed) really look to be too fresh and L-type for the real Dimmitt. I personally think that they are more likely pieces of Tulia (B) – an L chondrite that I have had a few pieces of over the years. However, these do have Monig/ TCU labels made up for them as Dimmitt (I likely will make a note on the back that this may not be the case) as they did come out of the bin of Dimmitts in that collection. The area has a number of overlapping strewn fields and the stones often look pretty much identical from the outside, so these issues will likely continue to crop up from time to time as more pieces of "Dimmitt" (or "Tulia" for that matter) get cut in the future (not that there are that many left to cut though). The large piece certainly looks like real Dimmitt to me and has an interesting 1cm sized inclusion (xenolith or melt pocket perhaps).
1) Slices:
a) 3.6 grams – 30mm x 10mm x 4mm - $7
b) 5.2 grams – 25mm x 14mm x 4mm - $10
c) 23.4 grams – 45mm x 25mm x 6mm - $40

NWA (2932): (Mesosiderite). Found 2005. Tkw = 15+ kilograms.
This (like the NWA 4656 and Oum Dreyga below) was set aside for a collector and forgotten about (by them as well as me). This really nice mesosiderite had large metal nodules in it that contained only tiny flecks of silicates uniformly scattered throughout them. Some of these nodules were found loose on their own like meteorite marbles. Their shape and composition made them very difficult to cut and polish (hard to hold onto and got very hot to the point of giving me a couple blisters). This is one of the few I did manage to cut though. I quickly sold out of these when I offered them some years ago. Here is my last one!
26.0 gram end piece – 25mm x 22mm x 12mm - $125

NWA (4656): (H4). Found before February 2006. Tkw = 5 kilograms.
This is a piece I had set aside for a long time for a collector that never came back for it (and I had forgotten about it myself). I think this is my last small piece of this fairly interesting stuff (I think I still have a few hundred gram sized full slice set aside). This is quite fresh and showed strange dark greenish/ gray inclusions on the stone's exterior. When cut, these inclusions are not as distinct (this slice has a couple). They look a bit darker and a bit richer in metal than the surrounding material (which is a medium brown) but they don't leap out a bunch visually as the rest of the stone is very metal rich as well.
18.2 gram slice – 39mm x 38mm x 5mm - $30

NWA (4857): Martian (Shergottite). Found before August 2007. Tkw = about 1kg.
This is another piece of what was the commonly available Martian material a few years ago. We were all thrilled to be able to finally get complete little Mars rocks for our collections (even if they were a bit wind polished. Remember – Tissint had not happened yet). This is a particularly special one though. I don't remember who I got it from, but glad I did (show trade or purchase I believe). This is a nice ORIENTED individual. It has the classic dome shaped nose and flat back. The crust is wind polished on this but in better condition than many pieces of this material. There are some flow lines visible on the parts of the dome (nose) side and a roll-over ridge around the edge of the back. These is a roughly 4 or 5mm corner chipped off of this (an old break – possibly from the fall) but is otherwise complete (and as such, more complete than the vast majority of the specimens from this find).
1.28 gram oriented individual – 12mm x 12mm x 6mm - $1000

OUM DREYGA, Western Sahara: (H3-5). Fell October 16, 2003. Tkw = 17+ kilograms.
This is what we originally sold and traded as `Amgala" before a name was officially attached to it. I have not had much of this recently and wouldn't even have this one if it weren't another one of the "set aside for a collector and forgotten" specimens like a couple above. Actually, these were all set aside in the same place for the same person. I re-discovered them while raking the pit (cleaning my office) and the collector was no longer interested in them (not surprising as they wouldn't have been forgotten if they had enough interest to ask for them later after setting them aside with me). Anyway, this is a fresh individual. It looks like a ½ stone but it is indeed complete. Looking at the "broken" face with a lens it is interesting to see that the very highest points on the face have little blebs of fusion crust perched on them (kind of neat, actually). This stone shows at least three distinct different levels of crusting!
30.7 gram individual – 36mm x 28mm x 15mm - $110

HANDBOOK OF IRON METEORITES:
This is a full set (including outer box) of this famous and very rare trio of books by Vagn F. Buchwald. I remember discussing this book set with folks at ASU many years ago. I recall that VERY few sets were printed (something along the lines of 100 sets or so) and fewer yet were actually distributed (oh how I wish I could have been hiding by the dumpster when the "leftovers" were finally disposed of). Anyway, this set is very fresh and has been very lightly used. I priced that at a level that Mike Jensen (someone who actually specializes in meteorite related books and has a clue to their value) says it should be snatched up in short order.
Complete 3 book set and outer case - $1700