Wednesday 18 December 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale-List 233: Fresh from CR Aguas Zarcas and more

List 233: Fresh from Costa Rica Aguas Zarcas and more

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
LIST 233

December 17, 2019

Dear collectors,

I am back from my Costa Rica trip. It was overall an enjoyable trip, though often quite warm and sticky (I am not used to humidity, even at relatively cooler temperatures). Kevin’s side of the country was, for the most part, sunny and dry. The dry season, with its strong winds out of the east, was setting in (we did still get some time of sitting in the clouds and watching fog drift by thing – a very, very rare thing for me to see in my part of Colorado but common where he is perched up on the top of a mountain). However, I feared that this might mean that the other side of the mountains might be rainy. I figured the clouds carrying moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to the east might end up getting the moisture wrung out of them as they got stuck against the easterly mountainsides and made their way up and over. Yep, this is indeed what we found. Aguas Zarcas was heavy cloud cover, lots of rain, some (generally minor) wind and at times surprisingly chilly for a tropical area. All of this certainly meant that we weren’t going to be out stomping around looking for specimens on our own (also because it was a bad time for lots of really dangerous snakes in the area. Unlike the ”nope ropes and danger noodles” crawling around my area theirs don’t make any noise to let you know you are getting to close. I have indeed managed to avoid getting bit by a rattle snake hidden in the leaves on a trail a couple times by knowing what they sound like - and that sound ain’t like they present it in the movies folks). So, we had to limit ourselves to meteorites that locals had already found. Unfortunately, it seems that not much is being found any more. Some of the few pieces that were recovered recently are certainly showing their age (I hand picked and avoided those, paying a higher price to do so of coarse) and other pieces (that looked to have been recovered quite earlier) seem to have become special family heirlooms (“not for sale”). Oh well, at least I tried. The few things I did pick up are listed here below at a price only a little lower than I have offered similar pieces in the past (but then, I didn’t really pay much less at the site and am not even including the travel expenses as part of these piece’s direct cost at this point). I am having trouble deciding what piece(s) I want to keep for myself so I thought I’d let fate decide – I’ll keep whatever is the nicest piece listed below that does not sell from this offering.

The other items on this list are the last of the Riker mounted display pieces I picked up as a collection during the Denver Show. All of these have labels and it turns out that one more of these is also a Casper labeled piece that had that label hidden under another different one. I’ll make notes in the descriptions below of what labels come with each specimen.

NOTE: As with the last offering, shipping on most of these (everything but the Aguas Zarcas) is going to be a bit higher (around $5 or $6 for a single item for basic US) as these, being in glass fronted display boxes, will have to be shipped packed in boxes. My usual jewelry boxes in a padded envelope won’t work for most of these pieces.
List 233
Click on Image to Enlarge
AGUAS ZARCAS, Costa Rica: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Fell April 23, 2019.. These purchased Dec 9th, 2019.
These are the pieces that, as mentioned above, I bought on the trip I just got back from. These are all natural fragments (though the largest has some claim to being a complete individual) and, after a light cleaning on my part, are quite fresh. Each has at least some fusion crust present (actually, all but the smallest have quite substantial amounts of crust). As mentioned above, the largest piece looks like it could be considered a complete individual. It has around 45% nice thick primary crust coverage with the remainder being angular “broken” surfaces. However, careful inspection shows non-sharp (micro roll-over) edges on the primary crust where it meats one of these “breaks”. Also, a hand lens shows obvious (but small) patches of thicker fusion crust on the high spots of most of these broken surfaces (so they can’t be “after the fall” breaks). One surface looks to be crusted so thin that it looks almost like a smoke coating. There is some hints of smoothing of the break as well as the fact that no real inside texture/ structure can be seen (aside from a couple larger chondrules poking through perhaps) whereas the other fragments (clearly showing post fall breaks) the interior structure is clearly visible. Regardless, I am not pricing this piece higher because of any of this.
1) Natural fragments. All have some crust:
a) 4.4 gram fragment – 16mm x 15mm x 15mm - $350 – about 15% crust covered.
b) 5.0 gram fragment – 20mm x 20mm x 10mm - $400 – about 45% crusted.
c) 7.4 gram fragment – 25mm x 18mm x 12mm - $590 – about 50% crusted.
d) 22.2 gram fragment/ individual – 32mm x 28mm x 20mm - $1700

BRENHAM, Kansas: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1882.
This is a Riker display that has two part slices – one 3.4g (17mm x 12mm x 5mm) and the other 13.5g (25mm x 20mm x 9mm). This has two labels; one (unnamed) that has the two weights as 3.4g and 14.2g. The label that was hidden underneath was a Casper label (for the 3.4g piece) that has “Happy Holidays!” written in the ‘Remarks” line. The larger piece looks to have a Nininger number on it. It certainly has the exact look of a Nininger number paint job, starts with the proper “10” for a Nininger Brenham but the next number/ letter is damaged enough to make it unclear exactly what was painted here (the last 3 look to be 119 though this could be “10M19”). This piece is also the typical thickness that Nininger would have cut back then.
2 part slices – 3.4g and 13.5g (possible Nininger piece) in Riker - $100

CAPE YORK, Greenland: Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1818.
Now this is a neat little Riker display. It has a label identifying the Meteorite (name, type, etc.) with “1 GM” handwritten on it, a nice etched 15mm x 10mm thin slice of the meteorite in a gemstone holder and a commemorative Greenland postage stamp (that looks to be from 1978). The stamp seems to show what looks like might be an ancient knife/ tool of some sort (this is indeed what the locals used these meteorites for) on a background of a large etched slice. I am assuming the “1GM” is the rough weight of the slice, but I didn’t pull all of this apart to find out.
15mm x 10mm etched slice, stamp and label in Riker box - $90

ESTHERVILLE, Iowa: Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Fell May 10, 1879. Tkw = about 320kg.
This is a thick part slice that has its larger portion being the silicate material (though there are still substantial chunks of iron, they show a bit better on the backside). This comes with a metal “meteoritelabels.com” label with the proper 4.75GM weight written in pencil in the specimen weight space.
4.75 gram part slice – 20mm x 13mm x 6mm - $90

HOLBROOK, Arizona: Ordinary chondrite. (L/LL6). Fell July 19, 1912.
Here are two nice complete fresh individuals in a Riker display. These come with a Schooler’s label that has the pair weight of 1.6grams. Yep, this is exactly what my scale got. The smaller piece weighed .68g on my scale and the larger was .92g. The larger piece has some areas of secondary crust (of the type and thickness that leaves no doubt that it is secondary crust, unlike some of the areas on the largest Aguas Zarcas listed above) but is NOT broken and is certainly a complete individual (the smaller piece is pretty much completely covered in primary crust).
2 complete individuals .68g, .92g in Riker with Schooler label -$40

MILLBILLILLIE, Australia: HED achondrite (Eucrite). Fell 1960/ found 1970.
This is a part slice of the more unusual fine-grained textured area of this meteorite (the vast majority of Millbillillie showed a brighter black and white salt and pepper texture). This piece has one natural edge that shows some weathered fusion crust that has some of the orange spots/ staining that shows that this really is a Millbillillie. This has a nice label with it but this does not say who’s label (Ann E. Nonimus??) it was. This label has the weight as 2.4 grams but my scale showed this as 2.2 grams.
2.2 gram part slice – 22mm x 10mm x 3mm - $30

NORTON COUNTY, Kansas: Enstatite achndrite (Aubrite). Fell February 18, 1948.
This is a Riker containing two small fragments of this meteorite along with a Schooler’s label. The label has these as .8g together and this is indeed what my scale showed. Each of these fragments is roughly 10mm x 5mm in size.
2 fragments totaling .8g in Riker with Schooler’s label - $25

Wednesday 20 November 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 232

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 232
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487

LIST 232

November 19, 2019

Dear collectors,

I have had a little time to look into, learn a little more about the changes to yahoo groups. It seems that is will not be quite as devastating to me (in how I generally use this venue anyway) as I was first led to believe. I will indeed be loosing the archives (so don’t expect to be able to go to the group archives if you received a list, deleted it and then decided you wanted to have another look at it). I also will not be able to put photos for those interested to go to the group photos to see. All archives will be removed (deleted) soon and no new “uploaded” content (photos and such) has already been blocked I believe. So, it seems that I can use this pretty much as I always have – for sending out a mass e-mail offering to those that have signed up for it but that is all. Those of you that directly receive my yahoo groups postings will now have to contact me (brmeteorites@yahoo.com) and have me send the associated photo(s) back as an attachment to a “reply” e-mail. As for any kind of archives (that also include photos), a friend (Dirk Ross) has been posting these e-mail offerings (along with the associated photos) and posting them at blaine-reed-meteorites.blogspot.com for many years now. This site contains pretty much all the posts (the meteorite offering ones anyway, not some of the ramblings/musings on other issues I’ve occasionally sent out) as well as associated photos. So, lost an offering or want to see a particular offering’s photo(s) –you should be able to go to the blogspot and find it there. Anyway, I’ll try to keep everyone notified as I learn more about the changes.

Here is an offering of things that I picked up more than a couple months ago at the Denver show. I have been so busy with things (and I leave yet again on the 29th and will be gone – really gone, as in out of the country – until December 12th) that I simply have not had time to do these offerings. These items are all Michael Casper labeled pieces and are set up displayed in riker mounts with their labels (I have a group photo but, as mentioned above, you will have to contact me directly to ask for it). Some interesting and hard to come by these days items here (and some not so hard) but they are all quasi-historic as Michael was one of the bigger dealers years ago and has long since moved onto other things.

NOTE: Shipping on these is going to be a bit higher (around $5 or $6 for a single item for basic US) as these, being in glass fronted display boxes, will have to be shipped packed in boxes. None of my usual jewelry boxes in a padded envelope for these pieces.
Click on image to Enlarge.

CHINGA, Russia: Iron. Ni-rich ataxite (IVB anomalous). Found 1913. Tkw = 300+kg.
This is a nice rectangular part slice that has two cut edges and two natural edges (the shorter sides are the natural edges). This has a simple polished face as, being an ataxite, it wouldn’t show much of anything if someone did take the time to etch it.
31.6gram part slice – 38mm x 18mm x 6mm - $65

COLE CREEK, Nebraska: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Found 1991. Tkw = 16.3kg.
I don’t recall having a lot of contact with this meteorite. I may have had a piece here or there over time but really don’t recall much about it. This is a roughly square-shaped piece that has one natural, weathered fusion crust edge. The side that is up in the display has been polished but this seems to have darkened it quite a bit and made the chondrules hard to see (they show up quite nicely on the unpolished back side).
31.1 gram part slice – 40mm x 34mm x 8mm - $90

EAGLE, Nebraska: Enstatite chondrite (EL6). Found, likely fell 1947. Tkw = 9,242grams.
Now this is one I do remember. It seems that a large fireball was seen in the area this stone was found. That was in October of 1946. This stone was found in 1947. Glenn Huss had managed to finally acquire the thing in the early 1980’s. It had very fresh crust, so it was clear that this stone had not been out in the weather long. The thing finally got cut and studied in 1984. It also showed a very nice fresh interior to match the fresh crust. This cutting work (and some sales) happened right around the time he was retiring, so very little of this got out into the collecting world (and as far as I know, the main portion of this remains locked up with the owners having no intentions of selling any). Glenn let me have some pieces of this on consignment when he finally shut down, but it was not a lot. This piece is kind of a block – a smallish rectangular slice that is quite thick (but then, this thickness is how meteorites were generally cut back then. Museums and research folks preferred thicker pieces). I have not seen a piece of this neat meteorite in a looooong time.
3.9gram block/ part slice – 17mm x 9mm 8mm - $225

HUCKITTA, Australia: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1924.
This is a complete slice of a fragment of the oxidized material. It was mostly unpolished (shows some saw marks if you look closely) and not coated. I did not take this to the sander but I may if it does not sell as it is. I did, however, go ahead and spray coat it (not so much to stop rusting that is not going to happen with this anyway, but to bring out the structure as spray coating generally acts like polishing). I kind of wanted to leave it alone as much as possible for now so the specimen weight will match the Casper label that comes with it.
22.0gram complete slice of a fragment – 45mm x 27mm x 6mm - $50

IMILAC, Chile: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1822.
This display consists of two of the shocked/ shrapnel specimens that were found around the impact crater. These have the twisted, skeletal metal with shattered, sandy yellow, orange to hints of reddish pink olivines in the recesses. The label on top (the Casper Meteorites one) is for the specimen on the left (7.6g). There is another label underneath the Casper label (but no name or clue who’s it is) for the other specimen but that has it as 9.1g and the specimen is really 8.5g. The prices on these from way back when were quite high. I think the sticker next to the 7.6g one was $100 and the other was $120. I’m selling both (with the labels, riker and all) for midway between these prices.
2 natural shrapnel pieces totaling 16.1grams - $110

POTTER, Nebraska: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Found 1941. Tkw = 261+kg.
It has been quite awhile since I’ve had any Nebraska meteorite and I just realized that I have 3 on this list alone. This display has multiple specimens one large one and 5 smaller slices/ fragments. I know some pieces of Potter like to fall apart on their own (not sure how a meteorite so weathered can do this) and assumed that this is what has happened here. Nope, the large 27.8g piece is an old-style thick slice that has two cut edges and two old weathered crust edges, but no places where pieces have broken off. Looking at the smaller pieces more carefully, it becomes obvious that these came from a much thinner cut slice, not the larger specimen with them. This display has two labels with it. I put the JM DuPont Collection label on top of the Casper label that has the weight as 30.8g (the DuPont label has no weight listed) which is indeed the weight (a hair less actually – I think I saw something around 31.0g on my scale when I did a quick weight check). Not sure if it really goes with this display, but there was also a New England Meteoritical Services label in the collection box and this was the only Potter in the box so that label goes with this as well.
30.8g slices/ fragments. One 27.8g slice (37mm x 33mm x 8mm) and 5 smaller - $100 – DuPont labeled

TATAHOUINE, Tunisia: HED achondrite (Diogenite). Fell June 27, 1931. Tkw = 13.5kg.
This is just weird stuff. The meteorite blew apart low in the atmosphere delivering many generally very small fragments of a mottled bright green with gray streaks meteorite to the ground. Years ago, when Alain Carion went to the fall site and recovered these things for the collecting world (late 1980’s probably?) this was the only known unbrecciated diogenite. I am not so certain that this is not still the case. This is a typical fragment of this strange material. Nothing exciting but interesting none the less. The Casper label has this as 3.6 grams but it really weighs 9according to my scale) 3.7grams.
3.7 gram natural fragment – 18mm x 12mm x 10mm - $45

Wednesday 23 October 2019

Notice- Yahoogroups to End. Google Blogger WILL remain for Blaine Reed Meteorites 23OCT2019

Important Notice-
BlaineReed Yahoogroups to End soon. 
Google Blogger WILL remain for Blaine Reed Meteorites- sign-up for Blogger if you want to remain informed. Thanks! *note by Dirk Ross

Blaine wrote-

Hi Folks,

I am really, really busy trying to get ready for the many trips I have coming up in the next month or so. I leave early tomorrow morning for Phoenix for a memorial for my uncle (the one that scraped the nose of his car down the side of a brand new Cadillac the morning I was leaving his house for Tucson this year). He passed away back in early July (I think it was July 3rd while i was goofing off in Keystone to go skiing at A-Basin the next day (it was the first time in nearly a decade they had enough snow to allow skiing on the 4th of July).

I get back from the Phoenix trip and then have only a few days to get ready for the Socorro Mineral Symposium show/ trip. I was supposed to already be prepping for that one but got busy doing some upgrade insulation work on the solar hot water system and then got hit with the NPR interview folks (15 hours of re-looking things up/ typing/ talking) that are doing a story on crazy Curry.

So, I am WAAAAAAY behind on things at the moment and then get hit with the news that Yahoo groups looks to be effectively shutting down on October 28th!!! Nice! a huge change coming and they give us NO notice (I had to get this second hand). It seems that no new content will be allowed after this date and all stored files (photos, conversation archives, etc) will be deleted on December 14th (or about 2 days after I get back from Costa Rica). I am trying to research things to see what is still going to be possible, what is not and if I need to go out into the wild and find a completely different venue for this. The problem right now is the timing. I'll only be home around 2 1/2 weeks the next month and a half or so and, as I'll still have to do all the work that would normally have to be done if I were here (things don't stop just because I am gone) I really don't have a lot of free time to figure this out.

What little I've been able to see so far seems to indicate that I should still be able to send out e-mails, so I may be able to keep sending out offerings for the time being (but I will have to send the associated photos to those that want to see them by e-mail individually) but there will be no archives to dig through for stuff that was offered in the past (which is quite unfortunate as I often do have a number of things that were on older offerings). Also, it seems that whatever "group" I am left with (with however little functionality) will automatically be made "private". I don't know if this means that all of that currently receive my postings will have to re-sign up or not. I don't think it does though (but right now I don't have much information to work with). I DO know though that anyone that is not currently a member will have to contact me and I will have to send them an invite (and then they'll have to take steps to sign up (and, hopefully, it won't change to be like Google where you can only do things/ sign up for things if you have one of their e-mail accounts).

Right now, I just don't have a lot of information and no time to figure much out either. All I can do is try to let you know more when I know more about what all of this means and how it is going to change things.

Blaine

Tuesday 8 October 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 231

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

LIST 231

October 8, 2019

Dear collectors,
Here is a list of some of the better/ higher-end things that I was consigned to sell during the Denver show. I highly suspect that I would not have had this many pieces remaining from this list if I had them at the start of the show. Unfortunately, due to various difficulties, these did not get to me until Wednesday afternoon. This gave me only 3 days to find buyers for these items (and I did indeed move a few things) during the time the major buyers had already left town. Anyway, I do have a group photo of these things for anyone interested. I’ll post it in the group archives but can send it directly to anyone by e-mail that wants it. As these are mostly expensive pieces I can get individual closer photos of any of these for those seriously interested. I limit it to “seriously interested” as poor Blake (the guy that takes and processes the pictures) is buried ever deeper in his ham radio antenna making stuff (he is putting more together in a month then he used to do in 4 to 6 months). Because of this, it might take a little time (but no to much) to pull together requested closer pictures but I’ll try to get them as fast as circumstances allow.

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona. Iron. Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
This is a nice complete slice. It shows a good etch and has an interesting assortment of inclusions. There are many small elongate inclusions that I haven’t made out quite what they are (look like they could contain some chromite) that often run parallel to the kamacite plates but some others of these inclusions surround other (likely Cohenite and schreibersite ) inclusions. This slice also has a large (35mm x 30mm) troilite and graphite inclusion. Nice specimen! I had a few small part slices earlier this year (and those sold out rapidly), but rarely see cut pieces of Diablo, particularly larger ones like this. Part of this is that people that have larger pieces that could produce a slice like this generally prefer to keep it as a whole specimen (large Canyon Diablos usually have nice sculpting). Also, it can be hard to find someone willing to cut this stuff. It is rare but, on occasion, someone cutting one of these will hit a diamond inside and destroy a bunch of expensive saw blades and equipment by doing so. This slice is polished and etched on both sides.
1061.6 gram complete slice – 200mm x 150mm x 6mm - $1000

FUKANG, China: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 2000. Tkw = 1003kg.
This is a rectangular part slice that I KNOW would have sold if I had it earlier at the show. One of my Chinese friends is always on the look out for pieces of this stuff that are priced fairly (and given the thinness and quality of the crystals in this specimen it certainly is priced fairly). Unfortunately, he had left the show the day before (I think Mike Farmer dropped him and Jim off at the airport and then headed back towards his home in Tucson as well at the same time). Anyway, this piece has fantastic large, gemmy olivines that completely pass light (this is only a bit over a millimeter thick). It is big enough (surface area-wise) to show the texture of this fantastic meteorite but thin enough to not make you have to pay for a bunch of extra weight to get it.
19.7 gram part slice – 85mm x 37mm x 1.5mm - $600

HUCKITTA, Australia: Stony-iron (pallasite). Found 1937.
I kind of personally asked to have this one brought to me. I had planned to pair it with a (very rare) fresh-metal piece of Huckitta I brought to the show. Well, I ended up selling that on its own before I got this piece. No matter, this is a really nice piece of this now hard to come by meteorite. This is a complete slice of a (rare) larger piece of the typical oxidized material. This is the stuff where the metal has turned to a mix of magnetite and hematite (miraculously without expanding upon taking up the oxygen required to do this and not blowing the piece completely apart in the process). So, this has dark angular olivine crystals set in a blue/gray oxidized metallic matrix. I kind of have soft spot for this material. It was some of the very first meteorite material I ever bough (got it from Robert Haag while I was visiting my uncle during college spring break – probably in 1986) for putting together a catalog and going into business selling these things myself.
123.9 gram complete slice – 130mm x 60mm x 5mm - $300

NWA (unstudied). Stone meteorite. Likely an H-chondrite (according to my Mag-Sus meter).
This is a large mostly complete individual (it does have an edge chipped off on one end) that is oriented. To me, this orientation is very obvious. But then, I know these things. This is fully crusted (aside from the above mentioned end/ edge chipping) but the crust, though quite fresh, has suffered some wind-polishing. This wind-polishing has subdued some of the obvious orientation features (flow lines on the front and roll-over rim around the back). Regardless, this still has the overall oriented shape: rounded, lightly thumb-printed front, rougher textured backside (which I can get and send a photo of if any of you out there are interested in the stone) that has a light roll-over rim around most of the edge. This is a nice specimen and being offered at a price that isn’t really all that much above what the Moroccans seem to be asking for similar quality (completeness, freshness, not oriented) meteorites these days.
4953 gram oriented individual – 180mm x 155mm x 70mkm - $6000

PUTINGA, Brazil: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Fell August 16, 1937. Tkw = 200kg.
I can’t recall if I’ve ever had a piece of this one. If I did, it would have been small (maybe as part of my long ago micro-collection) and a very long time ago. Anyway, this is a nice large compete slice that has fusion crust pretty much along the entire edge (there might a small chip or two, but nit much. This has a nice typical L6 appearance. It has plenty of metal in a mottled brown and light tan (nearly white) matrix.
146.3 gram complete slice – 110mm x 100mm x 4mm - $1600

ODESSA, Texas: Iron. Coarse octahedrite. Found 1923.
This is another piece that there is a good chance I could have sold if I had it earlier in the show. No matter, as now someone out there has a chance to pick up a nice big display piece for cheaper (per gram) than I can sell any other Odessa specimens for at the moment (but then, this is a big piece). This is a 6.1 kilogram complete end-piece (no other cuts except the face). The cut face is beautifully etched (nice strong etch pattern) and shows numerous troilite/ graphite inclusions. The back- side appears to be pretty much natural (though I can’t rule out a long ago light brushing). It has a sculpted/ large-scale thumb-printed kind of shape but it is large scale and subtle (I’ll get a photo taken of the back if anyone is seriously interested in this wonderful specimen).
6.1 kilogram end piece – 260mm x 150mm x 40mm - $6000

RANCHO GOMELIA, Mexico: Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1975. Tkw = 11.7kg.
This is a really nice complete slice that has an interesting long shape. This shows a beautiful etch that frankly looks closer to a fine octahedrite than a medium to me (but then, I really haven’t seen that many medium octahedrites lately). It also has a couple long Shreibersite or Cohenite inclusions. This piece also seems to have some history to it as well. It has “1044.7(b) painted on the crusted (well, weathered crust) edge in two places. Apparently, this came from Arizona State University. It seems to have been cut from the 11.4kg main mass that was listed in an older version of their collection catalog. That particular specimen has the number 1044. Not sure if this is the only slice they took off (I am selling this WAAAAY to cheap if it is) or merely the first slice they took off and traded out (I am assuming that the main mass would get the “a”, the first slice a “b” the next slice would be labeled “c” and so on). Nice piece that is etched on both sides.
157.3 gram complete slice – 125mm x 35mm x 5mm - $900

Thursday 26 September 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 230

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

LIST 230

September 26, 2019

Here is the e-mail version of my recently mailed list. I will post the group photos to my Yahoo group archives (if it will let me, I have had some difficulties in the past) but I can also e-mail them individually to anyone that wants to see a particular lot.

PLEASE NOTE: I will be out of town October 24th – 29th and November 6th – 13th (as well as late November – early December for Costa Rica).


CAMPO DEL CIELO, Argentina: Coarse octahedrite (IAB), silicated. Found 1576.
Here is an item that is a bit different. I have bought a fairly large amount of Campo nuggets over the past few years. Most are the usual rounded edge, angular all metal nuggets with only a possible hint of graphite or silicates. These pieces here are all very silicate-rich (I have been plucking them out of the batches of nuggets I get). Many (if not all) of these are probably better than 50% graphite/ silicates. Some pieces have these silicates as large nodules or zones. Others have them as fairly small blebs evenly scattered throughout (making the piece look more like a mesosiderite). Nothing super special, but cheap and (I thought) kind of cool/ interesting.
1) Tumbled/ cleaned nuggets that are very silicate-rich:
a) 4.7 grams - 17mm x 10mm x 7mm - $9 – not the piece in the group photo.
b) 7.5 grams - 18mm x 13mm x 10mm - $15
c) 10.2 grams - 18mm x 16mm x 8mm - $20
d) 15.3 grams - 22mm x 13mm x 11mm - $30


HOPE CREEK, Alaska: Ordinary chondrite (LL6). Found summer 1998. Tkw = 9.83kg.
Here are slices (and a nice “book-end” that stands up nicely on its own: 96.0 grams – 75mm x 45mm x 12mm for $570) that I cut from the 805g “main mass” I had offered on my October 2017 list. I was able to arrange a purchase/ trade deal that made it fully mine so I could commit my evil saw work on it so I can now offer everybody more affordable pieces of this meteorite. This is not a super pretty meteorite but it does have an interesting look to it. It has the occasional larger chondrule, clast and sulfide inclusion in a mottled tan to dark brown matrix. This meteorite actually has two shock grades assigned to it: S3 and S4. This stone is composed of lighter colored and less shocked (S3) clasts in higher shocked (S4) matrix.
1) Slices:
a) 5.1 grams - 20mm x 19mm x 4mm - $35
b) 9.5 grams - 35mm x 20mm x 4mm - $65
c) 16.2 grams - 35mm x 33mm x 4mm - $110
d) 31.2 grams - 50mm x 40mm x 4mm - $200
e) 65.5 grams - 85mm x 55mm x 4mm - $400 – large 15mm “chondrule”


NWA (10805): Ordinary chondrite. (L4), S2, W1. Found before May 2016. Tkw = 657 grams.
These are pieces from a studied main mass (only one stone was recorded for this find) that had been oddly cut down its long side. Unfortunately, this made it so I could not get any true complete slices (all of the larger slices have at least some small amount of cut edge on one end) as the finders had cut it what I would have considered the wrong direction for further specimen prep work to remove the research work specimen. Anyway, this is a fairly nice meteorite, having a low weathering grade of W1. This shows some well-formed chondrules, quite a lot of fresh metal in a mottled orange brown to medium brown coarse-grained matrix.
1) Slices:
a) 8.9 grams - 30mm x 19mm x 4mm - $15
b) 17.1 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 4mm - $27
c) 33.8 grams - 67mm x 40mm x 4mm - $50
2) End pieces: note, I only have these two.
a) 62.4 grams - 52mm x 32mm x 25mm - $90
b) 154.4 grams - 55mm x 44mm x 35mm - sold – Main mass.



NWA (2965): Enstatite chondrite. (EL6/7), possibly (EL3). Found 205.
This is the stuff that some called a “fossil” meteorite as it was found embedded as part of ancient lake- bed deposits. This shows no visible chondrules to speak of so I personally believed the 6/7 classification (some have even called this an achondrite Aubrite). However, some researchers argue that the presence of K-bearing glass and a non re-crystallized matrix show that this is really a type 3! Regardless, enstatite chondrites are not only very rare but are interesting in that the bulk content of the Earth is closest matched by melting this type meteorite. I managed to set aside a few “larger” solid pieces (most pieces of this stuff were thumb sized or so) years ago so I could cut these nice slices from. A couple REALLY large pieces I turned into end pieces (the largest has a large zone of the light gray material) at a per gram price cheaper than replacement cost for this material these days. This is very weathered so it doesn’t show any metal but it does have in interesting light brown sandy texture that is quite different from other meteorites. I sold quite a large amount of this material when I put it out at the Denver show this year.
1) Slices:
a) 4.1 grams - 30mm x 15mm x 4mm - $15
b) 8.0 grams - 30mm x 24mm x 4mm - $29
c) 16.2 grams - 52mm x 32mm x 4mm - $56
d) 25.6 grams - 53mm x 53mm x 4mm - $90
e) 39.1 grams - 75mm x 47mm x 4mm - $135
f) 58.9 grams - 100mm x 65mm x 4mm - $200
2) End pieces/ cut fragments:
a) 2490 grams - 130mm x 120mm x 95mm - $1300
b) 5690 grams - 230mm x 180mm x 100mm - $2800


AGUAS ZARCAS, Costa Rica: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Fell April 23, 2019. Tkw = 27kg.
I know quite a few of you saw an offering of this when I first got my hands on pieces back in mid August. However, this is an important new meteorite and many of you would not have gotten a chance to get a piece (I have many customers that only get this mailed list). I do plan to go to the area in Late November and hope to pick up some bargains from people wanting $ for Christmas rather than a rock on the shelf. Right now (as I type this list) folks that have material in the field seem to be still stuck at $65/g (larger uglier fragments that have seen a lot of rain before they were recovered) and $90/g (better, fresher individuals) so I am not sure if my “Christmas money” idea will work out. These slices, to be honest, are from a piece that saw some rain, but not much. I paid extra to get this wire-sawed to avoid adding any more water, causing any further damage as well. I do have a few small (mostly under 1g) fragments with crust (a bit cheaper per gram as well), so ask if that is what you might prefer.
1) Slices:
a) .28 grams - 10mm x 8mm x 1.5mm - $34
b) .54 grams - 13mm x 12mm x 1.5mm - $65
c) 1.0 grams - 20mm x 17mm x 1.5mm - $120
d) 2.0 grams - 28mm x 20mm x 1.5mm - $225
e) 2.7 grams - 37mm x 19mm x 1.5mm - $300
2) Larger fragments/ individuals:
a) 12.8 gram crusted fragment – 30mm x 18mm x 17mm - $1250.00 – about 40% crusted
b) 24.0 gram individual – 30mm x 28mm x 20mm - $2400.00 – about 85% crust, partly oriented.
c) 53.4 gram individual – 45mm x 32mm x 25mm - $5300.00 – about 95% crust, partly oriented.


NWA (12636): HED achondrite (diogenite). Found 2018. Tkw = 776 grams.
This was a solid diogenite fragment that I got during the 2018 Tucson Show. It sat around for quite awhile before I did anything with it. Upon cutting I found it had a nice, classic texture – larger angular to rounded crystals (generally light tan to somewhat greenish in color) in a fine (bright, nearly yellow) matrix. There also appears to be a fair amount of chromite (small black angular inclusions) in most of these pieces. The research work showed this to be a typical (Vesta origin) monomict (one rock type) breccia. Nice stuff, and a great example of a “classic” diogenite (something I have NOT had in a surprisingly long time)
1) Slices:
a) 2.8 grams - 20mm x 12mm x 4mm - $30
b) 5.4 grams - 28mm x 15mm x 4mm - $58
c) 10.0 grams - 40mm x 25mm x 4mm - $105
d) 18.0 grams - 50mm x 35mm x 4mm - $180
e) 33.0 grams - 65mm x 50mm x 4mm - $315
2) End pieces:
a) 54.6 grams - 70mm x 25mm x 20mm - $500
b) 114.8 grams - 60mm x 47mm x 20mm - sold


METEOR CRATER POST CARD:
These are vintage (mostly unused) post cards. They have a picture of the entire crater that appears to be a (somewhat overdone) hand-painted/ colored black and white photo of the crater as seen from the air to the east. The bulk of these have a trademark of what looks to be “Fred Harvey Hotels-Shops, Restaurants”. A photo number of H-3971 is on the front under the picture along with “Meteorite Crater Near Winslow, Arizona”. I don’t know how old these are but I do have a couple that were used that seem to indicate that these are from the mid to late 1940’s. Each of these is in a protective slip and the price on these includes the shipping. No, I won’t be writing your address on it and dropping it the mail. I’ll send them out in a regular letter envelope. I do have two of the same post card (one has an old crease though) that appears to be the same but with less over-coloration of the photo and has “Fred Harvey, Trade Mark” and none of the other “Hotels, restaurants” and such. I suspect these are later (and, at least from what I can tell, quite a bit rarer) - $5 for the creased (the uncreased is sold).
Old mid to late 1940’s post card of Meteor Crater - $5 including shipping, $4 each for extras.

Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is OK for now. Larger orders are now $14 (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 $15 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.

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. How ever, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail.

Saturday 31 August 2019

Denver show info 2019

Denver show info

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


Dear Collectors,
Here is the info for next week’s Denver Show that I am sadly far behind in preparing for right now:
I will (should) be leaving Tuesday the 3rd and should be getting back home around the 17th.

I’ll be at my “new” regular location – The Crowne Plaza DIA (apparently, there is another Crowne Plaza in downtown Denver and I know a couple people that have accidentally ended up with reservations there by simply going with “Crowne Plaza, Denver”. Don’t make this mistake). This is at I-70 and Chambers Road. This is on the north side of I-70 and a little bit east of Chambers road. The address is 15500 E. 40th Ave. I will be in my usual spot on the WEST-side of the actual convention center (near the hotel itself). If you park near the hotel and come through the sliding doors that have the “Convention Center” sign near them (I think this is just left of the doors) and turn right immediately after going through those doors, you will be looking in the door of my room (the “Frisco” meeting room).

I had hoped to be open by mid/ late Thursday but, as far behind as I am at the moment, it is quite likely that I will not be able to get out of here as early as I had planned. If so, I will be a good half-day behind where I had hoped to be and will likely not be able to open until the official show opening time Friday morning. For the bulk of the show (starting Friday) I will certainly be open by 10am. However, I have found that there are folks (often ones going to the big ballroom where the biggest portion of the show is) that want to stop by earlier. I won’t make any firm guarantees, but I will try to be open sometime not long after 9am each morning. As I have my own room and can stay open as late as I want (the main ballroom closes at 6) I do plan to be open well into the evening. Most nights, I will likely close up at around 9pm if folks are not visiting. IF YOU PLAN TO COME “AFTER HOURS” be aware the sliding doors just outside my room get locked not long after “closing” (probably around 6:30 to 7pm). So, if you come later, you will need to go in the hotel lobby entrance, turn left once you pass through the check-in area, turn left again when you come to the “restaurant” (it will be on your right) and then walk 100 feet or so to my room (which will be on the left). Aside from this, we can sometimes hear people pounding on the door (not easy, they are double doors with an atrium between them) and left folks in. However, we often don’t hear this (and security kind of looks down on us manually opening the doors) so please don’t count on that method working (do the through the lobby thing if we aren’t responding). On the final day (Saturday the 14th) I’ll be closing early – I think 5pm is the scheduled time. I had a bunch of people (that I really did want to visit with) show up right at that time last year. They were thinking (not surprisingly) that I’d be open Sunday as well (so Saturday would be one of my “late” nights). However, it seems that this convention center is a hot spot (even if my particular spot in it not) so they need us (and all of our crap) cleared out by Sunday afternoon so the next batch of folks (whatever they are selling/ talking about) can move in Sunday evening and Monday (I kind of asked if I, our at least my stuff, could stay in the Frisco room all day Sunday and was told “No!”).

So, I am behind schedule severely, hence the late posting of this note, but if any of you who plan to attend the show have any special requests of things for me to bring PLEASE LET ME KNOW (soon).

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing some/ many of you at the show!

Blaine.

Monday 12 August 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 229 AGUAS ZARCAS CM2

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 229

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



LIST 229

August 12, 2019

I am sending this out a day early as I will be tied up with stuff outside (in near 100 degree heat) quite a bit tomorrow (but I will still try to check phone messages and e-mails fairly often those times I am inside). I apologize if this comes through a bit hard to read, I seem to be having trouble, once again, formatting this post. This seems to be a pretty common problem with Yahoo these days.

AGUAS ZARCAS, Costa Rica: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Fell April 23, 2019. Tkw = about 27 kilograms.
Well, I haven’t been down to the area yet (I do plan to visit in mid/ late November) but I managed to get some reasonably priced pieces none the less. In fact, even if I had gone the area I am not certain that I could sell anything I might have picked up at prices as low as these (particularly considering travel expenses). The few contacts I’ve had from locals in the fall area trying to sell material have had prices of around $65/g (large/ ugly pieces) to as much as $130/g (nicer, smaller pieces). Anyway, most of you know the story on this already but here it is just in case you missed it. A little after 9pm local time a fireball traveling from the WNW to the ESE was recorder by cameras on top of the Poas and Turrialba volcanoes (I have been on top of both of these. Turrialba was belching dark clods of gas when I visited the site a few years ago. It has since erupted a number of times). Soon after, a kilogram sized meteorite fell through the roof of a house, damaging the rafters and a folding table stored below (I have access to this meteorite and associated artifacts. However, the owners of this have suddenly turned super greedy and want $1million US for this material. I was thinking it would probably, realistically be worth closer to $50 or $60k). Since that event was reported in local newspapers, many pieces have been found. However, rain came to the area soon after (not surprising considering the area) so most specimens have seen a bit of rain before their recovery. To be fully honest, all of my pieces are some of these. However, they showed very little effects and what was present was very easily cleaned off with a light baking soda air blast. I have three types of specimens: complete (and really nice) individuals, fragments that show at least some fusion crust (the largest is close to 50% crusted) and slices.

1) Complete individuals:
a) .49 grams – 8mm x 8mm x 6mm - $65 – oriented!
b) 1.7 grams – 17mm x 10mm x 8mm - $200
c) 3.4 grams – 17mm x 16mm x 10mm - $400 – oriented!

2) Fragments: most have some crust.
a) .52 grams – 9mm x 7mm x 5mm - $47
b) 1.0 grams – 13mm x 10mm x 5mm - $90
c) 2.2 grams – 20mm x 8mm x 8mm - $195
d) 6.4 grams – 22mm x 15mm x 14mm - $560
e) 12.8 grams – 24mm x 20mm x 18mm - $1080

3) Slices:
a) .25 grams – 8mm x 7mm x 1.5mm - $30
b) .36 grams – 10mm x 10mm x 1.5mm - $43
c) .68 grams – 18mm x 10mm x 1.5mm - $82
d) .94 grams – 20mm x 13mm x 1.5mm - $112
e) 1.52 grams – 23mm x 20mm x 1.5mm – $180
f) 2.47 grams – 27mm x 25mm x 1.5mm - $290

Wednesday 24 July 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 228

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

LIST 228
July 23, 2019

  Well, summer has certainly arrived here. We had a fairly nice, mild (and damp) spring this year. In fact, I actually spent the 4th of July up at A-Basin ski area skiing! It is a rare year that they get to sty open for the 4th (I think it was around 8 or 9 years ago that they last pulled it off). Normally, we break 100 by the end of May. This year we made it all the way into July before seeing or first 100 degree day (it was just over 102 about a week and a half ago). Right now, we are getting the full sun hot treatment usually reserved for June. We have been right at (or slightly above) 100 for the past week. Supposedly, we have some rain (and very slightly cooler temps – but still solidly in the mid 90s or higher) coming later this week.

Anyway, here is a summer offering of a few things I found sitting in the “new” or “rediscovered” pile. Looking at the group photo, I see that the structure of the Zagora didn't turn out. I'll try and get a better picture of this (so the silicates at least show) if anyone does end up being interested in this piece.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
Blaine Reed Meteorite List 228
FRANCONIA, Arizona: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Found 2002. Tkw = about 100 kilogram.
This is a mostly natural, as found fragment/ partial individual. It shows fusion crust on around 50% of the surface. The remainder of the stone is in the form of two relatively flat ancient breaks. Despite the obvious (to me and likely to most other meteorite collectors anyway) fusion crust, it seems the finder (or someone that they gave it to) ground down a bit of one of the flat break surfaces to show fresh metal, likely to prove that this was indeed a meteorite. I believe that this was a Linton Rohr piece but I did not find a Rohr collection label to go with it when I picked up this (and other) piece back before this year’s Tucson show.
16.3 gram natural fragment with crust – 25mm x 22mm x 18mm - $25

MOLDAVITE:
This is a selection of 10 really nice small complete specimens (I don’t see any fresh fracture surfaces on any of these) that I picked up in a trade in Tucson this past February. These are mostly elongate, quasi-teardrop shaped that measure around 20mm to 25mm long. These are in an 8cm x 5.5cm plastic display box.
10 nice individuals. 6.5 grams total in display box - $50 SOLD OUT

NWA (1950): Martian (Shergottite), Iherzoltitc. Found January and March 2001. Tkw = 812 grams.
This has two different find dates as two different paired stones were found (one in each month). This is a “peridotitic” cumulate that is mostly olivine (55%), pyroxenes (35%) and plagioclase. This is indeed an interesting looking meteorite. These pieces show dark (dark gray to black) angular to sub-angular crystals (the olivine I think) in a light green matrix. It seems there is a reason that this does not look “typical” to me. It seems that it really isn’t. From a little poking around I see information that seems to be saying that this is the ONLY Iherzolitic shegottite available to collectors. The others are, supposedly, all from Antarctica and more weathered. Not sure how true this is, but it does show that this is something far more interesting than just a shegottite. This “lot” consists of pieces that I think are leftovers or broken off of larger pieces while cutting and polishing. There are two large pieces (one slice and one end piece/ cut fragment) that are around 8mm to 10mm in size, one medium sized slice (around 5mm or so across) and some small (around 2-3mm) fragments (around 5 pieces). The three large pieces each have fusion crust along a decent part of their edges. These are in a 7cm by 6cm glass fronted plastic display box. I have priced this considerably lower than the few prices I could find for this material elsewhere (which were around $1k to $2k/ gram).
.87 grams of slices and fragments in display box - $500

NWA (6903): Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 2008. Tkw = 50 kilograms.
This is a small piece of a nice medium octahedrite that I offered (and sold out of) on a mailed list some time ago. This particular piece got misplaced somehow or it too would likely have been sold back then. This is a rectangular specimen with one small natural (but highly cleaned) edge and is etched on both sides. I had this priced at $4/g when I originally offered it on my list but I am pricing it a bit cheaper here to “get it out of inventory” (so I no longer have to keep track of it as a separate inventory item) and give someone a fairly good middle of summer deal.
16.6 gram etched part slice – 32mm x 14mm x 4mm - $50

NWA (8179): Achondrite. (Ureilite). Found 2013. Tkw = 245 grams.
This is interesting stuff. It certainly does not look like a typical ureilte. It seems that the research work on it also showed that this is indeed not a typical ureilite. The research description says that this is a “relatively coarse-grained, protogranular aggregate of predominantly olivine (with reduced rims containing stained Fe metal) accompanied by minor orthopyroxene and pigionite”. It seems that (aside from its strange texture) that this is unusual in that it does contain orthopyroxene in addition the usual pigionitic pyroxene found in ureilites. The appearance of this is a mottled mix of light tan (nearly white in some spots) to medium brown matrix that has a lot of really fine brown veins running through it. I am not certain if these are shock related (this meteorite is listed as “moderate” in shock level) or from weathering of fresh metal (some of which is visible in this piece along one edge. An interesting specimen (that is a complete slice of a fragment) that is in a 7cm x 6cm glass fronted display case.
6.3 gram complete slice – 40mm x 25mm x 2mm - $175

TOLUCA, Mexico: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1776.
I have always found it odd that this meteorite is called a “coarse” octahedrite. Most of the etched pieces I have ever seen (and that includes this one) show more of a really nice medium octahedrite etch. This is a part slice that is etched on both sides. It, overall, is roughly square in shape and has one natural edge (the 3 others are cut edges). Other than showing a nice etch, this slice also has a couple (roughly 10mm to 15mm sized) troilite surrounded by graphite inclusions. A nice etched slice of a meteorite that I have seen very little of in recent years.
56.1 gram etched part slice – 45mm x 42mm x 4mm - $110

ZAGORA, Morocco: Iron. (IAB) with silicate inclusions. Found 1987. Tkw = 20+ kilograms.
This is a fairly thick part slice that I picked up from a collector who was letting go of a few items from his collection. He was not sure of the ID on this. He had not written down the name, assuming he’d always remember it (like I do sometimes) and then didn’t (also something I am guilty of). However, he had notes showing that he got this over 20 years ago. Well, pretty much the only silicated irons available back then were Zagore and (occasionally) Udei Station. This certainly looks like Zagora and the XRF tends to support this. Also, the thick cut was certainly something not uncommon back then for this material either. This has two cut edges with the remainder (a bit over 50% of the edge) being natural.
24.7 gram part slice – 25mm x 20mm x 7mm - $125

Tuesday 7 May 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale - List 226

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487                                                                                                                                
                            LIST 226


May 6, 2019

I am sending this out in a very rushed way. It is a day earlier than usual and I do not have the photos for this offering yet (will work on that next). This is because I need to hear back ASAP on the question below (Aguas Zarcas). I have folks waiting for my response to their questions (buy now, at what price, make arrangements to go back into the field or not, etc).

New Costa Rica (CM2) Aguas Zarcas:
Nope, I don’t have any at this moment (but Kevin Kichinka has a few pieces he is offering on Meteorite Central I believe). However, we can get more material but it is NOT particularly cheap. I guess what I need to know is how many of you are still wanting a piece of this material and roughly how big of a piece would you be interested in. I am not certain exactly what kind of price we’d be talking (the locals seem to be raising the prices daily) but I’d certainly want to keep it at or below the prevailing prices currently (which I believe are around $100 to $150/g or so right now, but possibly less, particularly on big pieces and certainly on any that were recovered after the first rain). Anyway, if any of you are interested, please let me know. This will help me decide if it is worth shuffling $ around, possibly buying plane tickets, car/ hotel rental, etc.  It seems that I ended up being a few days late when I jumped on the new Cuba fall a couple months ago. For the most part, those that really wanted a piece already had a piece (and didn’t need one from me, even if my price was a tad lower). I just want to avoid making the same mistake (at much higher costs) on this one.

Anyway, here is an offering of things I (mostly) brought home from Tucson. Most of these things are consignments that were left with me. These are expensive things mostly as those are the kinds of things I don’t have a lot of in my own inventory and it is good to have some higher end things on display at the show (hence their being consignments). The owners of these items have been wondering when I was going to offer them: sell them or return them. I have been tied up with “must offer now” things since getting back from Tucson when I have had tome to do an e-mail offering such as this. I guess this is not really any different this time either, come to think of it.

Photos for this list: I will have two associated with this offering but they will have to wait. We have (yet again) more cloudy/ thunderstorm weather and Blake is currently buried in building an emergency “need these yesterday” Ham radio equipment order. I will post the pictures as soon as I have them and will send them directly to any of you wanting them as soon as I get them on my computer. 





ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite  (CV3). Fell February 8, 1969.
This is a nice end piece. It is not super, super fresh but nice none the less. In fact, what light weathering this has seems to have only highlighted the chondrules and other interior features. The back- side has a roughly 35mm x 35mm patch of thick primary crust in its center. The remainder is light secondary crust and the usual (for this fall) late fall edge chipping. This comes with a Moritz Karl label.
    86.6 gram end piece – 53mm x 51mm x 15mm - $1300

BASSIKOUNOU, Mauritania. Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell October 16, 2006.
I am pretty certain that this is a piece I picked up from Karen Rohr when I picked up more of Linton’s collection a couple weeks before going to Tucson (I bough outright the stuff that was cheaper/ more common rather than trying to keep track of it all as consignment). This is a nice complete individual that Linton likely got from me (at least the label that came with it was from me). This is about 50% covered in thick, rounded edges fusion crust/ form with the remainder being still thick but rougher textured secondary crust.
    19.1 gram fully crusted individual – 35mm x 20mm x 16mm - $95

HENBURY, Australia: Medium octahedrite (IIAB). Found 1931.
This is a specimen that Jay Piatek left with me. He didn’t have the price on hand (had to go back and look that up). When he told me, it was a bit of a shock. It is, admittedly, quite high. However, this is indeed a superior specimen. It is one of the nicest Henbury pieces of its size I have ever seen. This is distinctly a shrapnel fragment but it has a wonderful oriented look to it. The “front” has a nice, smooth dome-like shape whereas the back has a distinct torn, bent edges shrapnel look to it (I’ll try and get a picture to send out of the back of this if anyone is seriously interested in this piece). Jay seems to have gotten this from Anne Black as it comes with an Impactika label.
    745.9 gram exceptional natural individual – 130mm x 65mm x 25mm - $2600

NWA (unstudied): Likely (H5) or (H6).
I got this end piece in some kind of trade (for Moldavite or Libyan Glass I think) in Tucson. Kind of wish I had the rest of this meteorite. It is one of the nicest examples of an H chondrite I have seen. This has lots of fresh metal – most of it in the form of the usual blebs scattered throughout, but also has a really nice solid metal vein. The back-side is really interesting as well. It has been highly wind-polished (though there is obvious crust around the edges) such that the metal vein and metal blebs stand out high and have been (naturally) polished to have a shiny metallic look to them. 
    38.9 gram end piece – 48mm x 35mm x 7mm - $40 
  
NWA (7034): Martian, polymict breccia. Found 2011.
Yep, here are the first pieces of ‘Black Beauty” I have ever offered. I remember when Carl Agee (UNM) carried a nice end piece into my room (probably Tucson 2012) and had me run it on my XRF. He stood there with a big grin. To me, this looked like a “typical” moon rock but the XRF read it as Mars! Yep, I got that one right. This was originally called a basaltic breccia, as much of this is composed of fragments of various basalt rocks. However, more interesting things have turned up as researchers have worked on it. Pieces of impact melts, sedimentary rocks (! – our first from Mars) and more have been found so this has been re-classified as a “polymict” (multiple different rock types) breccia. I admit that the prices on these pieces are some fairly large numbers BUT this is, by far, the cheapest per gram I have ever seen this material. These are all natural fragments as found. I have considered (and may yet) buying one of these (likely one of the smaller pieces) getting it wire-sawed in half (any of these should work for that), sell half and put the other half in my collection (I think this is the only type Mars rock I don’t have yet). These come with a Jay Piatek Collection label.
a) 1.24 grams – 18mm x 15mm x 3mm - $3100
b) 1.61 grams – 17mm x 11mm x 5mm - $4000
c) 4.12 grams – 20mm x 20mm x 6mm - $10,300

NWA (10652): Primitive achondrite (Lodranite). Found 2015.
I am not certain if the exact story on this piece. It was dropped off with me in Tucson in a Riker that has a simple round sticker saying “NWA 10652, Lodranite, 9.47”. This may be a piece of the original 146.1g reported stone (I have my doubts on this, given the large surface area of this slice) or (more likely) a pairing. I did a bit of research and found that, regardless, this does indeed look the to be the same stuff as the original reported stone. This is weird/ odd material. It is a “matrix-poor” breccia that, on first glance, looks very, very much like an LL6 chondrite. It has some metal grains and small breccia fragments that are rounded and do a good job of mimicking chondrules! However, the XRF (yep, I ran it to be sure) clearly shows that this is NOT an LL6. This is a complete slice of a natural fragment. About 1/3 of the edge of this slice has weathered fusion crust with the remainder being weathered old natural breaks (or since lost thin secondary crust).
    9.47 gram complete slice – 55mm x 43mm x 1mm - $250

TISSINT, Morocco: Martian (Shergottite), olivine phyric. Fell July 18, 2011.
This is a beautiful complete stone. It does have some areas (maybe 20% of the surface) that, at first glance, look to be fresh breaks. They indeed are BUT they were formed late in the fall. Careful inspection under magnification shows that these “fresh breaks” have small patches of melt/ fusion crust on the high points so they are really very light secondary crusted areas. The remainder of the stone is covered by nice shiny black primary crust. A nice piece of a meteorite I don’t see much of these days.
    3.71 gram complete individual – 16mm x 12mm x 12mm - $2500 

Wednesday 17 April 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 225

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

April, 17, 2019

                        LIST 225


Note for Colorado buyers: I have not seen any changes recently to the “grace period” on the requirement that I collect and remit ALL sales taxes for your locations (this will be different, with different agencies that have to be properly paid for every address I need to ship to). The grace period runs out on May 31st (despite there being no system set up for me to even be able to begin to try and comply with this ridiculous new regulation). So, if you are a RETAIL buyer in Colorado, please try to place orders for anything you might like from this list at least couple days before the May 31st compliance deadline so I can have the items fully invoiced, packed and shipped out on or before May 31st. Thanks! 

Note: Pieces listed with ** after the weight are replacements for the piece that was originally in the group photo for these meteorites. They are, for the most part, very similar to the photo piece but are NOT the actual pieces in the photo(s)
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CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
Here is something I have not had in a long, long time – etched slices of this meteorite! Even better, these are all nice complete slices of small individuals. Canyon Diablo is not often cut. I have known several people over the years that have tried but they usually end up giving up after they hit a diamond in a specimen (and a diamond in an iron meteorite will win against those on the edge of a multi-hundreds of $ saw blade every time) or (what embarrassingly happened to me in a geochemistry class in college) the specimens don’t etch from being heated during the impact. Anyway, these are nice little complete slices that all show a good etch (and inclusions) structure. 
1) Etched complete slices:
a) 10.8 grams - 30mm x 20mm x 3mm - $22
b) 22.7 grams - 38mm x 25mm x 3mm - $45
c) 33.7 grams** - 40mm x 32mm x 3mm - $66 
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NWA (11190): Ordinary chondrite. (L4), S2, W1. Found before January 2017. Tkw = 1000grams.
This is a Main Mass I have decided to offer intact (well, mostly, there is an end cut off that supplied the material for the research work done on this) because this is actually a pretty nice desk specimen as it is. This is quite fresh, shows lots of chondrules and metal in a light gray matrix that has only minor rust staining on the 50mm x 45mm cut face. This also has a good amount of fairly fresh fusion crust covering around 70% or so of the exterior surfaces. If this does not sell intact, I will likely cut it and offer up slices (and an end piece) on a future list.
    977.3 gram main mass – 85mm x 80mm x 70mm - $900
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NWA (7902): Ordinary chondrite, (L3.7), W2. Found before February 2013. Tkw = 2016.5 grams.
This is a stone that I have had for some years but had only offered as a nearly 2kg main mass in the past (and nearly sold it as such). I finally got around to cutting it. The interior shows densely packed chondrules (though not super vibrant) and small veins of Fe-oxide in a brown matrix. Research work showed this meteorite to have kind of a split personality. The Fa (a measure of the iron content) spread of the olivines indicates a type 3.7 classification but the Pyroxenes Fs spread (again a measure of the iron content) indicates a lower type 3.4.
1) Slices:
a) 5.1 grams - 24mm x 15mm x 4mm - $20
b) 10.3 grams - 27mm x 22mm x 5mm - $40
c) 21.3 grams - 50mm x 40mm x 4mm - $80
d) 39.2 grams - 80mm x 44mm x 4mm - $135 – complete slice.
e) 77.6 grams - 90mm x 65mm x 5mm - $250 – complete slice.

2) End piece:
a) 889.2 grams - 85mm x 74mm x 80mm - $1600 – Main Mass.
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NWA (12007), Ordinary chondrite, (LL6), S2, W1. Found before Feb. 2018. Tkw = 155.6 grams.
Like the earlier offered NWA (12005), this one came to me at the very end of the show. Like NWA (12005) offered on my last list, this also looked to be far more interesting than research showed it to be. This had the exterior look of a CK meteorite, though the “chondrules” looked like they could be rounded breccia clasts. This also showed no attraction to a strong magnet. I thought that this was either weird CK (many of those do show magnetic attraction though) or a weird eucrite. Nope, this is actually a weird looking LL6. It’s interior in a dark gray with a few chondrule remnants (one large one is offset by a shock vein) in a couple of the slices and, despite its lack of magnetic attraction, some “metal” (more likely troilite) grains. Nothing special really but a bit different from the usual LL6 stones I have had. 
1) Slices:
a) 2.0 grams - 18mm x 15mm x 2mm - $16
b) 3.9 grams - 25mm x 18mm x 3mm - $31
c) 8.6 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 3mm - $67
d) 10.7 grams - 50mm x 33mm x 2mm - $80 – complete slice.

2) Main mass: 42.1 gram end piece – 50mm x 30mm x 15mm - $250.00
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VINALES, Cuba: Unstudied but likely L or LL6. Fell February 1, 2019.
I actually had these on the way to my house before I left Tucson. I rapidly sold the complete individuals but have (finally – in between the endless snow and rain storms we’ve had since I’ve been home) prepped up some end pieces and slices from a few of the larger broken individuals I had. These were all cut from pieces that were recovered before rains had come in after the fall so these are (for the most part – there are a few pieces cut from a piece that was found in a low area that show some minor hints of brown staining near the edges) quite bright white and show lots of fresh metal and sulfides. All of my pieces show some shock veining and some have larger areas of shock darkening and brecciation (looking somewhat similar to some Chelyabinsk specimens). I am giving out temporary identification cards with these specimens and will have to send buyers of these pieces real cards once research work is done and reported on this new fall. This is only the second meteorite reported from Cuba! (the other was a small 1.5kg iron found way back in 1871. I found notes in one article commenting about a supposed fall near a reservoir back in 1994 but can’t find any further records of the event in official meteorite records).
1) Slices:
a) 1.1 grams** - 13mm x 11mm x 3mm - $27
b) 2.0 grams - 17mm x 14mm x 3mm - $50
c) 3.8 grams** - 26mm x 21mm x 3mm - $95 – complete slice.
d) 7.2 grams - 33mm x 27mm x 3mm - $180 – nice complete slice.

2) End pieces: with nice crust on the back. I have only one of each of these:
a) 6.3 grams - 24mm x 17mm x 8mm - $160
b) 9.7 grams** - 17mm x 16mm x 5mm - $240 – mostly secondary crust on back.
c) 16.6 grams - 33mm x 23mm x 13mm - $415
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El MEDANO (395), Chile: Primitive achondrite (Brachinite). Found November 2018. Tkw = 2288 grams.
Steve Arnold found this stone on top of a hill while on a meteorite hunt in the Chile. He sent me a piece to run on the XRF wanting to know if it was a meteorite. I did not know that he had already sent pieces off to a researcher. My answer was “Yes” it is a meteorite and that it looked to be a brachinite (a very rare type achondrite that is mostly olivine). He said the researcher thought it was a “low carbon ureilite”. Well, the Fe content (and Fe/Mn ratio) was wrong for such a thing (even though this does indeed have the granular/ crystalline texture almost identical to many ureilites). I (rightfully it turned out) suggested that he tell the researcher about this as Brachinites are rare enough that many researchers have never seen one (and thus not consider that possibility so easily). Anyway, this DID turn out to be a brachinite and it is the first one from the entire Western Hemisphere! These are all slices that were cut fairly thin with a wire saw. I got them unpolished and I did try (using both a flat lap and my usual drum sander) sanding these but ended up with somewhat bad results. Given the granular texture of this material, it kept crumbling into ever smaller pieces the more I tried to work with it. I eventually gave up and decided to simply spray-coat one side of each of these (gives a polished look without my making all of this into sub-gram sized pieces) that can easily be removed in the future if one is so inclined.
1) Slices:
a) .45 grams - 11mm x 7mm x 2mm - $23
b) .91 grams - 17mm x 9mm x 2mm - $46
c) 1.4 grams - 20mm x 12mm x 2mm - $70
d) 2.0 grams - 20mm x 18mm x 2mm - $100
e) 2.9 grams - 28mm x 17mm x 2mm - $140
f) 5.4 grams - 37mm x 25mm x 2.5mm - sold
g) 10.3 grams - 50mm x 42mm x 2mm - sold

Please note:
Shipping:  For small US orders $4 is OK for now. 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 $15 (I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $16.
    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.  How ever, for overseas orders, it probably is best to go ahead and use my brmeteorites@yahoo.com e-mail.