Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
January 3, 2018
LIST 210
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
TUCSON SHOW INFO: I will be on the road from January 24th until around February 14th. For the show itself, I will be in my usual spot: Ramada Limited (665 N. Freeway, Tucson) room 134. I should be open by mid to late morning Saturday January 27th. I likely will indeed stay through the bitter end – February 10th will be the last day. I open the door most days at 10AM. I will have the door open most evenings until around 9:30pm or so (or later if people are visiting/ still wandering about) but there may be a couple nights I will be out for dinner or such for a couple hours but that should be rare.
Note on photos: I do have “group photos” of each of the lots listed below, so ask if you want me to e-mail one (or a couple) of these group photos. These photos have the exact specimens listed below. I often send the first requesters of a particular size specimen that I have multiple pieces of the largest/ nicest of that size range. You can request that I send you the EXACT one in the photo if you really want this (assuming that I still have it anyway).
This was found in 1971 but was not recognized as a meteorite until 1990. It had a nice deep dish on one side and had done duty as a dog-food bowl for 20 years on a ranch in Mexico until it was recognized as a meteorite. Here is a selection of Schwade Collection pieces. Each will come with a Schwade collection label. As I also had part of this meteorite when it first came out I also have copies of my old labels I sent out with specimens I sold back then (so, like the Gan Gan on the last list, you will get two cards with these specimens). This batch did not lend itself well to breaking down into a catalog where I can list a piece and have back-up “replacement” pieces (for most of these anyway, particularly the smaller specimens). So, once the listed piece is sold, I will try to offer something similar, though it will be somewhat larger or smaller than the listed piece (but it’s appearance won’t differ much from the photographed piece overall).
Part slices: etched to show a very light Neumann line structure:
a) 43.4 grams - SOLD
a.2) (not shown in photo) 54.3 grams - 55mm x 27mm x 6mm - $210 - SOLD
b) 84.9 grams - 70mm x 30mm x 5mm - $320
c) 136.3 grams - 60mm x 50mm x 5mm - $475
d) 163.0 grams - 60mm x 60mm x 5mm - $530
e) 203.1 grams - 75mm x 60mm x 6mm - $600
A single stone was purchased in Tamara, Morocco. Research work showed it to be an equilibrated (petrographic grade 4) H-chondrite. This study also showed that this is also a low shock, low weathering grade stone. The low shock I believe – the matrix is quite porous. The weathering grade I am not as certain of. This shows a good number of chondrules in a medium orangish brown (with hints of purplish undertones) matrix but very little metal is visible. Anyway, I (obviously) have very little of this available.
Slices:
a) 12.4 grams - 40mm x 34mm x 4mm - $20
b) 23.4 grams - 60mm x 43mm x 4mm - $35 – complete slice.
c) 43.4 grams - 70mm x 52mm x 6mm - $65 – complete slice.
End piece:
a) 36.3 grams - 50mm x 33mm x 12mm - $60
I found a batch of fragments that I had set aside over 15 years ago (probably closer to 20 years actually) in deep, deep storage. I got them in a trade with ASU. Unfortunately, I can’t even remember what it was I traded to them to get these. All I remember is that I got to scoop out a couple kilos of fresh fragments (all which were pretty much crust free and most of which I sold off years ago) from a large wooden crate full of the stuff as part of that trade. Anyway, I cut most of these pieces in half to make these nice cut fragments. As mentioned above, few show any crust but all are very fresh show lots of chondrules, CAIs and the occasional gold colored troilite inclusion.
Cut fragments:
a) 2.6 grams - 20mm x 18mm x 4mm - $35
b) 5.1 grams - 25mm x 20mm x 7mm - $65
c) 10.0 grams - 35mm x 26mm x 5mm - $125
d) 14.3 grams - 35mm x 27mm x 9mm - $175
e) 21.1 grams - 40mm x 25mm x 10mm - $250 May be SOLD
e.2 (not shown in photo) 21.4 grams 42mm x 25mm x 14mm - $250
I know, the official report says that only 2.8kg was found of this. However, this is paired with a bunch of other reported NWA numbered pieces that, all together total around 130kg or so. To me, this is the (869) of the lunar world; abundant and beautiful (so many things there is a lot of are ugly, unfortunately). This has a fantastic truly moon-rock looking appearance with angular white to light gray clasts (of all sizes) in a dark gray background. Best of all, its sudden large quantity weight appearance (though the few biggest pieces – totaling something like 100kg are already safely in private collections) has brought the price down to a fantastically cheap level. Larger pieces, I have heard, are now hard to come by and prices on the smaller stuff is rising (at least based on the last stuff I was offered anyway). Here is your chance to get a truly moon-rock looking moon rock at a truly reasonable price. These are all cut fragments that I did my best to maximize polished surface area (and the “thickness”measurement is a measure of the thickest part, not an overall depth/ thickness). I do have some other slices available, but only a few.
1) End pieces/ cut fragments:
a) .90 grams - 15mm x 10mm x 5mm - $100
b) 2.00 grams - 25mm x 10mm x 5mm - $200
c) 3.36 grams - 22mm x 17mm x 5mm - $300 SOLD
c.2) (not shown in photo) 3.45g - 25mm x 17mm x 5mm - $300
d) 5.50 grams - 34mm x 19mm x 6mm - $495
e) 7.09 grams - 32mm x 26mm x 6mm - $635
f) 13.25 grams - 58mm x 24mm x 5mm - $1160
g) 29.07 grams - 60mm x 35mm x 10mm - $2500 SOLD
g.2) (not shown in photo) 27.25g - 60mm x 30mm x 11mm - $2300
h) 90.23 grams - 110mm x 40mm x 13mm - $7200
i) 184.4 grams - 95mm x 70mm x 20mm - $13,800 – a real hand specimen!
These pieces were cut from a chunk of Seymachan I picked up at the Denver spring show a few years ago. The piece in its natural state looked to be pretty much nothing but a mass of olivine crystals, many of which were super gemmy, and not much else. I had this professionally, wire-saw cut as I know it would have turned into a pile of crystals (but many of which could be faceted) if I attempted to do the job with my equipment. As expected, these thin slices show very little metal. Most have a vein of metal (that usually has some neat shaped chromite inclusions) that is around 5mm or so wide and only a few small isolated grains otherwise. Interestingly, a fair number of the crystals are dark and shattered (likely through shock) but yet others immediately adjacent are absolutely glass clear. I sold quite a lot of this material in Tucson at $20 to $25/g but I am offering it a bit cheaper here to my regular customers
Slices:
a) 4.2 grams - 30mm x 25mm x 1.5mm - $65
b) 7.9 grams - 35mm x 35mm x 1.5mm - $120
c) 14.8 grams - 57mm x 40mm x 1.5mm - $200 – complete slice.
End piece:
a) 96.1 grams - 50mm x 40mm x 25mm - $700
This stuff has gotten hard to come by. The Russians were generally the only ones brave enough to go out to the area where this is found (it is an off-limits military area where they practice dropping bombs, or so I have been told). They are not allowed to go to Egypt these days after one of their airliners was shot down a few years ago. So, he who has some Libyan glass has it, he who doesn’t – tough luck. I stumbled into a person that had some set aside years ago recently. The pieces they had set aside were ones that have bands and zones of darker greenish-brown glass. I am not certain if it has been completely decided yet, but I recall that studies show that this darker glass may contain small amounts of the exploding body that formed this material. All of the pieces here were selected to show this darker glass – either a zones in areas of the piece, but most often as bands running through the specimen. Rare and interesting.
Individual pieces as found, showing darker glass bands and areas:
a) 3.5 grams - 20mm x 15mm x 12mm - $10
b) 7.4 grams - 30mm x 23mm x 12mm - $20 SOLD
b.2 (not shown) 7.7 grams- 26mm x 21mm x 11mm - $20
c) 15.0 grams - 40mm x 18mm x 18mm - $40
d) 24.8 grams - 45mm x 24mm x 20mm - $65
e) 44.2 grams - 55mm x 35mm x 30mm - $110 – only one this size. SOLD
Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $3 should still be fine. Larger orders are now $13 (insurance is extra if desired – I’ll look it up if you want it). Overseas prices have gone up A LOT the past couple years. Now small overseas orders are around $13 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $15.
I do have a fax machine that seems to work (but I have to answer it and manually turn it on), so overseas people can contact me that way if they must. However, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail.
