Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale List 192 - 12JUL2016

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale List 192

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

……………………………………………………LIST 192

July 12, 2016

Dear collectors,

Here, finally, is an offering. I think it has been nearly two months since my last one.

Today is the first chance I have had all summer to pull together an offering. This is a quickly pulled together offering at that. These are items that I got from Alan Lang and all but the thin howardite slices -NWA (8559)- come with a Lang Collection label. These are also all in Riker mounts so the shipping will be a bit higher on these ($4 to $6 maybe for US orders) as they will require boxes and extra packing. For overseas orders it might be best to consider letting me ship the sample on its own as I suspect that a Riker (or similar) could be picked up overseas for cheaper than the shipping will be to send it on now (the post office actually lowered our domestic shipping rates a few cents recently but seems to have jacked up overseas rates substantially to make up for it. The past few overseas orders that I have sent out I expected $9 to ship were now $13 – and that was for my usual small specimen in a small jewelry box in a padded envelope!). I’ll try to let any overseas buyers know what the rough shipping costs will be either way and let them decide from there.

DAR al GANI (313), Libya: Ordinary chondrite (L/LL3). Found April 24, 1997. Tkw = 3294 grams.
Now here is one that I believe is the opposite of the NWA chondrites listed below. This one is listed as a W2 for the weathering grade but I see very little fresh metal left in it. Regardless, it does show lots of chondrules in a very dark (nearly black) matrix. I wish they had done the sub-typing on this one. The huge spread in the Faylites in this and the dark matrix hint that this might be a really low sub type number. These are small slices. They have natural edges so they are complete slices of natural fragments.
1) Slices:
a) 1.3 grams – 15mm x 12mm x 2mm - $25
b) 6.4 grams – 42mm x 20mm x 2.5mm - $95

DAR al GANI (442), Libya: Ordinary chondrite (H3.6). Found 1998. Tkw = 188 grams.
This is a nice complete slice. It has nice black crust completely around its edge, aside from a 4mm natural chip. The interior shows lots of metal in a medium brown matrix. There are lots of chondrules present but they are not super easy to see at first glance (H chondrites generally have quite small chondrules). However, tipping the specimen so light reflects off of the metal shows lots of chondrules – many of them armored (surrounded by metal and sulfides).
13.4 gram complete slice – 40mm x 29mm x 4mm - $100


DAR al GANI (521), Libya: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3). Found 1998. Tkw = 1567 grams.
This is a complete slice of a fragment, though the longest edge has a curved shape that is likely the original exterior of the meteorite. This CV has a very different look to it than most. This is dark brown and very hard, almost glassy (most CV’s are light gray and soft). The hardness of the piece allowed this slice to take a high diamond polish, something not really possible with the typical CV specimen. Some chondrules and CAIs are visible, but nothing like the typical CV. I looked up a couple pictures of this material available on the Meteoritical Bulletin site and this is definitely the right stuff.
6.7 gram complete slice – 55mm x 18mm x 2mm - $90

DHOFAR (125), Oman: Primitive achondrite (Acapulcoite) S1, W1/2. Found January 26, 2000. Tkw = 2697 grams.
This riker has two small thin part slices. The smallest is .17 grams and measures 9mm x 4mm x 1.5mm. The larger piece is .55 grams and measures 12mm x 9mm x 1.5mm. Both piece show a typical granular acapulcoite texture.
.72 gram thin slices (2 pieces) - $40

NWA (1203): Ordinary chondrite (H5). Found 1999. Tkw = 716 grams.
I am not sure if much of this has ever been available to the collecting world. It was classified ion Tokyo and has an unlisted owner for the main mass. Regardless, this is actually a pretty nice complete slice. It has nice dark fusion crust around most of the edge. Despite its W3 in the Bulletin report, this is also quite fresh inside as well. There is lots of fresh metal and a number of clear breccia clasts visible in a nice light brown matrix. Frankly, this is every bit as nice as some of the Plainview, TX slices I have had recently.
77.1 gram complete slice – 85mm x 70mm x 4mm - $100

NWA (1224): Ordinary chondrite (L5). Found 1999. Tkw = 93 + grams.
I put a + on the total known weigh as I know it can’t be correct as I have 102 grams here. Regardless, this is a meteorite I wish I had more of as it has a wonderful breccia texture. It has lots of thin dark shock veins (and this is only a S3?) surrounding angular to rounded light to medium tan fragments. The back sides of these have nice dark chocolate brown to black crust (the smaller piece being pretty much completely crusted and the larger having some old surface chipping covering about 30%). This, along with the abundance of fresh metal makes me question a bit the W3 weathering grade assigned to this stone. Note, the larger piece has a high diamond polish that hides the structure a bit. Lower sanding/ polishing levels (around 220 grit) tend to show breccia textures better. However the super nice polish job has me hesitant to back sand this, so I’ll leave it as it is for now.
1) End pieces:
a) 50.9 grams – 50mm x 40mm x 15mm - $100
b) 51.2 grams – 60mm x 33mm x 20mm - $100

NWA (8559): HED achondirite (Howardite). Found April 1, 2013. Tkw = 1758.8 grams.
Here are a couple nice thin complete slices of this meteorite. The research report on this find says this meteorite is composed of 20% diogenite, 30% basaltic eucrite and 50% cumulate eucrite material (pretty much a complete run of the common Vesta surface materials). These slices have the classic howardite look angular clasts of different colors (white, gray black, etc) in medium gray matrix. The smaller piece has a couple larger clasts that are clearly eucrite fragments (completely different from each other texturally). The larger piece has a couple larger obvious black inclusions. The larger of the two (about 1cm x 1cm) looks to be (and likely is) a CM2 fragment (I almost sold this piece to a new collector at the Colorado Springs show last month, partly because of this feature. Unfortunately, they started flashing the lights saying “show is over for the day NOW” – despite the show having the best foot traffic of the day. The collector lived far enough away that he could not come back the next day to finish deciding if he was going to take this or the pallasite slice he was looking at).
1) Complete slices:
a) 39.9 grams – 105mm x 63mm x 2mm - $550
b) 42.1 grams – 115mm x 75mm x 1.5mm - $600