Tuesday 19 March 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - LIST 223 RHOR COLLECTION: Part 2, vol. 2

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487 
                            LIST 223

March 19, 2019

RHOR COLLECTION: Part 2, vol. 2
                                                                                                                               BASSIKOUNOU, Mauritania: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell October 16, 2006. Tkw = 100+ kg.
This is a piece that was very obviously picked up right after the fall. It has super fresh black fusion crust. This isn’t an item I can call a complete individual as it does have a large (52mm x 22mm) fresh break. I can’t see any signs of fusion crust on the break or any crust roll-over on the edges so I suspect this is an impact with the ground break. The remainder of the stone is around 2/3 primary crust and 1/3 secondary crust the covers about ½ of the 42mm x 20mm late atmospheric break. A nice fresh specimen that has a neat story to tell. This comes with a metal stand up on its own meteoritelabels.com label.
    72.6 gram ½+ individual – 55mm x 25mm x 23mm - $350

BONDOC, Philippines: Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found 1956. Tkw = 888.6 kilograms.
 Nininger was the one that brought this meteorite to light. It was fond in the jungle and probably recognized mostly due to its large size. This is an end piece/ cut fragment of a silicate nodule from this meteorite. I don’t see any fresh metal hiding amongst the silicates but this does attract a magnet fairly well. This comes with a Michael Cottingham Meteorite Collection label.
    40.5 gram end piece of silicate nodule – 47mm x 30mm x 15mm - $150

ESQUEL, Argentina: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1951. Tkw = 755kg.
This is actually a really nice part slice that passes light through pretty much all of its crystals but a few small ones in one cluster. I actually offerd this one last year but have decided to offer it at a new lower price (everyone tells me how they are “getting” $30, $40, $50/g out of their Esquel but I have never been able to do it). This is in a membrane box (though I have taken it out for the group photo), comes with a metal meteoritelabels.com label as well as a Southern Minerals Meteorites & Fossils paper label.
    38.5 gram part slice – 90mm x 50mm x 2mm - $1000

GIBEON, Namibia: Iron. Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
This is a nice complete individual. For the most part, it looks to be pretty much as found (nice orange brown to chocolate brown) but may have had a light brushing in the past (it has a hint of shininess). I haven’t seen a small compete piece of Gibeon in quite a long time. I am surprised that this didn’t sell (the Chinese seem to be buying up all the Gibeon they can find) but then it was kind of lost in the display case full of more rare, collector type specimens. 
    40.7 gram complete natural individual – 55mm x 25mm x 8mm - $100

NWA (2696): HED. (Howardite). Found 2004. Tkw = 6.5 kilograms.
This is a part slice that Linton got from Michael Cottingham (it comes with a Cottingham Meteorite Collection label). It is a fairly typical howrdite (nothing special). It looks quite similar to the NWA (1929) pieces I have in color and texture but seems to have more and smaller breccia fragments. About 50% of the edge is natural/ crusted and the remainder are cut. This is in a 2” x 2” plastic display box:
    7.04gram part slice – 28mm x 22mm x 5mm - $100

NORTON COUNTY, Kansas: Enstatite achondrite (Aubrite). Fell ebruary 18, 1948. 
This is a fragment the Linton bought from me (and I had it on consignment from someone else) as the writing on the UNM Institute of Meteoritics label looks to be mine (I got a number of blank labels that I needed to fill in weight, name, and specimen number (this has a UNM painted catalog number on it) with the specimens back then). What is really neat about this piece is that a lot of fragments (likely low-iron olivine) really light up bright yellow under my filtered UV light (the Convoy S2 I seem to misplaced but now, thanks to John Kashuba, have a Torcia 365 (365nm wavelength) light. I am fairly certain that this will sell quickly. For those of you that want a piece of Norton that shows this fluorescence, fear not, I do have an assortment of pieces I just picked up of somewhat similar sizes for $30/g).
    7.2 gram fragment that fluoresces – 25mm x 15mm x 14mm - $200

TAZA (NWA 859): Iron. Plessitic octahedrite (ungrouped). Found 2001.
This is a complete individual that has some adhering dirt and caliche but generally shows much nicer fusion crust than most Taza pieces this size do. What flow lines are present are weak but one point has a kind of bullet-head look to it so this specimen spent at least some time with this point forward during its fall. This comes with a “Meteorite Madness” (Bob Cucciara) label.
    27.9 gram natural, crusted individual – 25mm x 20mm x 12mm - $170

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Iron. Coarsest octahedrite (IIB). Fell February 12, 1947.
I have two nice fusion crusted pieces to offer here. The smaller piece (22.0g) has a nice sculpted, fine thumb-printed shape. Its crust looks pristine original (does not look to have been brushed, chemically cleaned, gun blued, etc) as well. The larger piece is blocky (likely a single kamacite plate that broke free during the fall) and has the classic bullet-head shape. The crust on this looks pretty original on this as well, though a tiny hint of shininess might mean that this has been (very lightly) brushed at some point in the past. I don’t see flow lines on this piece but the shape clearly shows that it was oriented for a substantial part of its fall. This larger piece comes with a metal meteoritelabels.com label.
a) 22.0 gram nice sculpted individual – 32mm x 18mm x 18mm - $100
b) 53.5 gram oriented individual – 35mm x 20mm x 15mm - $200 

Monday 11 March 2019

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 222 Rohr Collection: Part 2, volume 1

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487                                                                                                                                
List 222

Rohr Collection: Part 2, volume 1


ALMAHATA SITTA, Sudan: Polymict Ureilite. Fell October 7, 2008. 
This is a piece of the stuff that was seen by telescopes approaching as an asteroid before its fall. This asteroid turned out to be a rubble pile of all kinds of different things (E’s, H’s, R’s, etc) but was mostly ureilites of various types and textures. A recent discovery from this meteorite I heard of a few months ago (but haven’t heard anything since of) is that one piece of the ureilite material from this fall had high pressure minerals in it that indicate that the ureilite parent body was somewhere between the size of Mercury and Mars!  This specimen is a small fragment of clearly ureilite material that has fusion crust on its longest side. It is in a 55mm x 30mm plastic display box that has an Impactika label.
    .23gram ureilite fragment with crust – 10mm x 5mm x 3mm - $250

HAXTUN, Colorado: Ordinary chondrite (H/L 4). Found August 1975. Tkw = 45.5kg.
Though it isn’t particularly pretty, this is an interesting meteorite. I turned this up years ago along with John Martin (Oklahoma Meteorite Lab).  Research work that this had olivine and pyroxene iron contents right out in the middle between those of H and L chondrites. There are some hints that this leans towards L-type, but the high weathering of this meteorite makes that unclear. Anyway, this in an end piece/ cut fragment that Linton likely bought from Ann Black as it comes with an Impactika label (as well as another unnamed label and I’ve added one of my old labels from when I had this stuff for sale). 
    27.8 grams end piece/ cut fragment – 55mm x 18mm x 20mm - $125

LIBYAN DESERT GLASS:
This is actually a really nice piece. This stuff has gotten really hard (and expensive) to get these days and I think it would be hard to replace this for near the price on this. It has some minor recent chips and dings but is mostly covered in a pleasing light textured sand etched surface. This is also of high quality as far as the glass itself is concerned. It is very clear (particularly for a piece of this size) and has a nice light yellow color.  Linton got this from Jensen Meteorites and this comes with that label. 
    45.3gram nice natural fragment – 55mm x 30 x 20mm - $125

MILLBILLILLIE, Australia: HED (Eucrite). Fell October 1960.
This is listed as a fall, but none of this was picked up until 1970. Worse yet, most of this stuff remained in the field until the mid to late 1980’s. This is one of those later recovered pieces as it has a good amount of that orange dirt staining that most pieces of millbillillie had. Nope, not going to try and clean it (the horror stories I could tell of botched cleaning jobs on pieces of this meteorite. I had a chemical that would remove the orange but then left a white residue that pretty much nothing would touch). I do know that this is a pre – Calcalong Creek piece because it is absolutely complete – no chips, dings or ground flat spots (all the Millbillillies after Calcalong had one of these breaks or grinds as the folks finding them wanted to make certain they were not about to send off another moon rock as a eucrite). This does have some nice areas of black shiny crust and is absolutely covered in nice fine flow lines.
    17.4 gram complete individual – 35mm x 20mm x 17mm - $225

MUNDRABILLA, Australia: Medium octahedrite, anomalous. Found 1911.
This is actually a really neat piece. Turned upside down from how it sits naturally, it looks identical in shape to the wild Chantrelle mushrooms I like to pick in the fall (didn’t get a single one last fall – was far too dry here last summer). This has been left absolutely as found and has some caliche and dirt remaining on its surface. Best shaped piece for the size I have seen in a long time. 
    126.8 gram natural individual – 48mm x 30mm x 25mm - $125

NWA (4473): HED. Polymict Diogenite. Found 2006. Tkw = 7kg.
This is a slice of the interesting diogenite that looks very much like a Lunar anorthositic breccia. In fact, I think the Hupe brothers bought the original pieces of this material believing that that was what this was. Nope, it turned out to be more interesting scientifically (I think this was the first known polymict diogenite) but far less valuable selling to collectors wise. The only giveaway that this is not lunar is that the angular to rounded light-colored clasts (that are in a classic lunar like dark gray matrix) have a greenish tint to them. This a part slice – one natural edge and three cut, and is wedged (but you can’t see that unless you take it out of the plastic display container it is in). This comes with its original Hupe Collection label.
    8.3 gram part slice – 28mm x 21mm x 5mm - $100

TAFASSASSET, Niger: Primitive achondrite, ungrouped. Found 2000. Tkw = 110kg.
I haven’t had a piece of this interesting meteorite in quite awhile. It looks very much like a common (L6) at first glance - nice shiny grains of metal in a mottled light (nearly white) tan and brown matrix. Research work showed that it had no relationship to the L parent body. I seem to recall that it seems to be related closest to the CV parent body (making this a CV7 perhaps?). This is a nice part slice that has one cut edge (the others appear to be recent fractured edges) and is in a small membrane box that has an Impactika label.
    2.14 gram part slice – 18mm x 17mm x 2mm - $100   SOLD