Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 148, first after Tucson offering 25FEB2014

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 148, first after Tucson offering 25FEB2014

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 148

February 25, 2014

Dear Collectors,

Here is my first “after Tucson”, things I hauled home list. I didn’t pick up a whole lot of material volume wise (fits in a milk crate or two) but I did get quite a variety. Many of the things need a bit of work (light polishing and such) and many are still packed. I may end up doing more than the usual “first and third Tuesday” offerings (heck, this one is a week late but then I was not even home yet last Tuesday) as I work through this pile (a fair number of items are consigned so I need to sell them or return them to their owners before too long).


ETTER, Texas. Ordinary chondrite (L5). Found 1965. Tkw = 338+ kilograms.
Here is a nice Huss prepared (and numbered) specimen. It is thicker than we usually cut things these days, but that is how he cut these over a couple decades ago. There is one natural “crusted” edge (which contains the H47.181 catalog number). The other edges (as the face) are nicely polished to show a neat jade green (with some brown highlights) matrix.
37.6 gram part slice – 37mm x 35mm x 8mm - $150

FORTUNA, Argentina: Achondrite (Winonaite). Found May 27, 1998. Tkw = 312 grams.
This was a bit of a surprise to find in a collection a fossil dealer from Germany was selling. I was a bit nervous about this thing as well. It looks very similar to and XRF’ed fairly close to (but then all of the chondrites and primitive achondrites have nearly identical chemical compositions, particularly when you start accounting for weathering) a piece of Portales Valley I had on display (which will be offered on a future list). However, upon getting home and doing a bit of research, I do see that this is indeed Fortuna and not a mixed up Portales. I found pictures of some slices on line that match this thing perfectly. Anyway, only a singe 312 gram stone was found. Very few pieces of this ultra rare material got into the collector’s market. The major portion of this find is in a private collection in Germany and, I am told, will never be released (I think it is supposed to be willed to a museum or such). I didn’t fully realize how rare Winonaites are. I have had a piece or two of different ones (never had a piece of Fortuna before) over the years. I have had lots of requests for pieces of this type meteorite that I have not been able to satisfy over the years as well (note: if this fails to sell intact I will probably cut it up and attempt to satisfy some of the demands for small winonaite pieces I have recorded). Anyway, this is a (somewhat wedged, unfortunately) complete slice of the stone and does seem to show remnant fusion crust around most of the edge. The interior has lots of fine metal and several metal veins in a crystalline green/ brown matrix. A neat and really rare specimen.
21.54 gram complete slice – 60mm x 38mm x 3mm - $3000

GLORIETTA MOUNTAIN, New Mexico: (Pallasite). Found 1884. Tkw = 190+ kilograms.
I think this might be the first slice of the pallasitic material from this find I have had. I have had lots of the just iron material (which was relatively affordable) but don’t recall ever having a pallasite piece (which are usually VERY expensive). This is a nice complete slice that has nice large olivine crystals (which all transmit at least some light and some are certainly clear enough to cut gemstones from if one were so inclined) and lots of troilite. Both sides have been mirror polished, so no etching on this one (and, as I fairly well stink at etching I am not going to risk messing up this specimen by trying to do it myself). I have pictures of this one already in my computer for those interested.
36.2 gram complete pallasitic slice – 75mm x 45mm x 2mm - $1300

INDOCHINITE: Bao Loc, Vietnam.
Here is a really large specimen I got from Alan Lang (this comes with his label). It is almost perfectly round but is (fairly) thin and dish-shaped (the back side has a gentle depression. Deeper, and this thing could have made an ash tray). I think I have had some Vietnam tektites in the past (some Niniger ones a few years ago I think) but they are quite uncommon. This is a nice large hand specimen. I had three but quickly sold two in Tucson (I didn’t find this piece until near the end of the show or it likely would have sold as well).
256.0 gram complete individual – 80mm x 78mm x 25mm - $130

NORTH HAIG, Australia: Achondrite (Ureilite). Found 1961. Tkw = 964 grams.
This is a small slice that I got as part of a collection that was recently sent to me. I didn’t think much of the piece on first inspection (it looked kind of like an old H chondrite or such) as it only had its name on the plastic bottle it was in. Further work quickly changed my opinion though. Anything from Australia is in high demand these days, as are pretty much any achondrites (or witnessed falls) that have not been available recently. This has both things going for it. In addition, according to the Catalog of Meteorites, very little of this material has gotten out. I have only this one small piece unfortunately.
.23 gram slice – 9mm x 5mm x 2mm - $100

NWA (1000): Achondrite (Eucrite). Found 2001. Tkw = 1200 grams.
This appears to be another one of those “fell through the cracks” things that has been completely worked up by UCLA but never got reported to the Nomenclature Committee (even NWA (869) got stuck in this limbo for many years). Regardless, this is an interesting specimen that looks quite different from any other eucrites. It has a strange texture showing long thin crystals in a weird darker reddish brown matrix. Frankly, this looks more like an angrite than anything (but XRF showed it is definitely a eucrite). This comes with a label that has the write up/ research results from UCLA on this material.
3.68 gram slice – 33mm x 16mm x 3mm - $70

SIERRA COLORADA, Argentina. Ordinary chondrite (L5). Found 1995. Tkw = 71.3 kilograms.
I remember when this stone came out, along with a huge nicely oriented meteorite also from Argentina (can’t remember the name of that one right now – Rio Limay I think). Edwin managed to work a deal to acquire these wonderful gems. Not sure what happened to the big oriented piece (left mostly intact I hope) but this one (the smaller stone) got cut up. It’s been quite awhile since I have had a piece of this. This is a rectangular part slice that has one natural edge. It shows a fair amount of metal (this isn’t weathered significantly) in a mottled dark green and gray matrix (which shows a bit better on the back, unpolished side).
14.3 gram part slice – 41mm x 26mm x 4mm - $55

WELLS, Texas: Ordinary chondrite: (LL3.3). Found 1985. Tkw = 4135 grams.
I had the main mass of this one years ago. It all quickly sold (often in large pieces). I have had a few pieces over the years since, but not many. Here is a natural fragment with a polished face (that is about 20mm x 15mm). This does not show any metal but does show LOTS of chondrules (this was a weathered meteorite but the weathering brought out the chondrules really well). Regardless, there are only a few known LL3.3s (4 listed in the most recent Mteorites A to Z) so this might be important for those of you looking to fill out all of the sub-types in your collection.
5.6 gram fragment with polished face – 25mm x 20mm x 6mm - $140

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 148, first after Tucson offering