Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 236

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 236

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

LIST 236

TRAVEL(s) INFO:
Boy oh boy has this part gotten screwed up a bunch recently. First off – I had the dates for the Denver Spring show wrong on the mailed catalogs I sent out (close to 300 of them). I had put down April 17th through the 19th . This show, to not interfere with other important shows used to be the weekend closest to “420”. They had to change it (and lost numerous dealers do to the other show conflicts) to a different weekend as the hotel that hosted the show was already fully booked the 420 time frame for pot shows at the nearby Merchandise Mart. I thought the show went back to its original scheduling when they moved out the Crowne Plaza a few years ago. Nope, I got a postcard telling me that the show was actually April 10th – 12th. Oops! I was about to consider re-doing the list (and tearing open hundreds of envelopes) when I got the notice that the show dates have been moved! The new dates (hopefully just for this year) are May 15th – 17th . So, no reason to worry (too much) about have the wrong weekend as neither weekend I would have put on the list was correct now. However, I had a trip through Wyoming planned with friends (yes, I do actually have some) for May 12th – 18th. So, now I would be missing the show because of that. Well, now it seems that I can go to the show as my (expensive) pre-paid reservations in Yellowstone for the actual days of the show (we’d be in devil’s tower, Buffalo and other places other days) have now been canceled! Yellowstone park will be completely shut down at least until the end of May (and the room rates are drastically higher at that point). So, now I do plan to attend the Spring show assuming it does not get changed yet again. So, if you are going to the show and want to meet, let me know ahead of time (if possible) and if there is anything in particular you want me to bring (otherwise I mostly bring things for sales to the various dealers that want stuff from me each year).
---

GIBEON, Namibia: Iron. Fine-octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
(Click on Image to Enlarge)

GIBEON, Namibia: Iron. Fine-octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
Boy oh boy has Gibeon gotten hard to come by recently. Not much is turning up and what little is (mostly from old collections) is usually rapidly snapped up by the Chinese. Well, I managed to pick up a handful of small pieces (from a couple different sources, surprisingly) in Tucson this year. Had the Chinese been at the show this year, I am certain that these would NOT have made it home with me (at these prices anyway). Most of these are completely natural, only the 113g (highly brushed) and the 693g (very lightly cleaned) have had any work done on them. All of these have nice sculpted shapes.. Pieces like these were actually fairly rare even when Gibeon was commonly available.
1) Complete individuals (mostly natural) as found:
a) 33.4 grams - 30mm x 25mm x 20mm - $62 – NOT the piece in the group photo.
b) 63.2 grams - 50mm x 18mm x 11mm - sold
c) 94.8 grams - 60mm x 30mm x 16mm - $160 – NOT the specimen in the group photo.
d) 113.6 grams - 65mm x 25mm x 12mm - $190 – wire brushed.
e) 693.1 grams - 105mm x 40mm x 35mm - $1050 – very lightly brushed..
---

GHADAMIS, Libya: Ordinary chondrite (L6)
(Click on Image to Enlarge) 

GHADAMIS, Libya: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Fell August 26, 2018. Tkw = about 100kg.
The above is more of the Berber spelling of the town name, others have it as “Ghadames”. Regardless, this is a super nice new fall that turned up in Tucson this year (and got the biggest amount of $ out of my pocket for any one item this year). This still has not turned up in the official listings for some reason. However, there is no doubt that this is a) a fall and b) an L chondrite (by magnetic susceptibility readings) and c) by internal texture an L6. I had a couple other large super fresh individuals but have already sold those (I cut this one because it had an easy to work with shape and a tiny amount of rust spotting). Every piece listed below has at least some fresh fusion crust along an edge (the larger pieces are 50% to 100% edge crusted). A beautiful new fall at a (surprisingly) not scary price.
1) Slices, part slices:
a) 2.7 grams - 20mm x 13mm x 4mm - $16
b) 5.4 grams - 24mm x 20mm x 3mm - $32
c) 10.2 grams - 34mm x 25mm x 4mm - $60
d) 20.0 grams - 55mm x 45mm x 3mm - $115 – complete slice.
e) 40.9 grams - 62mm x 46mm x 5mm - $225 – complete slice.
---

NWA (7675): Ordinary chondrite. (L5)
(Click on Image to Enlarge)  

NWA (7675): Ordinary chondrite. (L5), S2, W2. Found 2012. Tkw = 663 grams..
Now this is a meteorite that, to be honest, I question the weathering grade and not for the better, unfortunately. I do see some fine metal grains in some of the slices I got from cutting this, but not a lot. Frankly, this does not show much of anything (how’s that for marketing?). This does have some minor thin shock or hematite veins and some slight hints of chondrule outlines in a medium to dark brown matrix. I suspect that this got put to research as the original buyer hoped (given its lack of obvious chondrite textures) this might be a primitive achondrite of some sort. Not particularly pretty, but an affordable “new” meteorite.
1) Slices:
a) 7.0 grams - 35mm x 18mm x 4mm - $9
b) 13.0 grams - 55mm x 17mm x 4mm - $16
c) 25.9 grams - 50mm x 45mm x 4mm - $31
2) End pieces:
a) 34.9 grams - 47mm x 22mm x 17mm - $40
b) 187.8 grams - 58mm x 30mm x 55mm - $190 – Main mass.
---

NWA (11669): Ordinary chondrite. (LL3)
(Click on Image to Enlarge)  

NWA (11669): Ordinary chondrite. (LL3), S2, W2. Found 2013. Tkw = 23 kilograms.
I kind of wish I picked up a little more of this (and in more solid pieces – I had problems keeping larger slices together when cutting and polishing this stuff). This, to some degree, reminds a little of Ragland, NM or Wells, TX LL3 specimens I had in the (distant) past. Like those, this shows pretty much no metal at all but makes up for it by having lots of chondrules (of various shades of gray, brown, orange and more, just not quite as bright as Wells). Unfortunately, like most type 3’s these days, this did not get sub-typed as that now requires hundreds of probe data points costing LOTS of money (due to rule changes within the Nomenclature Committee) so that only gets done on truly fantastic looking, obviously low sub-type specimens now. All but the very smallest specimens in the list of slices below are “one of a kind”. This is among the very most “affordable” LL3’s I’ve ever offered. I also have bags of cheap small “E-Bay” type pieces available, so just ask if you are interested (I’ll put together a custom bag of total weight and, when possible, sized desired pieces for you).
1) End pieces:
a) 23.8 grams - 30mm x 20mm x 15mm - sold
b) 44.3 grams - 40mm x 35mm x 15mm - sold
c) 102.2 grams - 70mm x 65mm x 12mm - $190 – NOT the specimen in the group photo.
d) 124.5 grams - 80mm x 60mm x 15mm - $225
e) 310.9 grams - 85mm x 70mm x 25mm - $500 – has carbonaceous clast
2) Slices: $3.00/ gram. Sizes available:
2.4g, 5.2g, 9.6g, 16.6g, 25.8g
---

NWA (12269): Achondrite. Martian (Shergottite).
(Click on Image to Enlarge)  

NWA (12269): Achondrite. Martian (Shergottite). Found before July 2018. Tkw = over 2kg.
Here are slices (and a couple end pieces) of this interesting (and quite solid) shergottite pairing to NWA (12269) I picked up in Denver last September. This meteorite is different from other shergottites in that it does not contain olivine, just clinopyroxene and maskelynite (plagioclase turned to glass by shock). This tells us that, unlike Earth, Mars did not produce a homogeneous liquid mantle during accretion. This shows that Mars had only a semi-liquid mantle with zones of differing mineral compositions. These pieces will be out in either a small plastic display box or a small Riker (depending upon size of the specimen). This part got left out of the mailed copy, unfortunately (I had a computer crash that wiped out much of my typing the first go-around and I forgot this little detail the second time).
1) Slices:
a) .15 grams - 7mm x 6mm x 1.5mm - $30
b) .25 grams - 10mm x 6mm x 1.5mm - $50
c) .51 grams - 12mm x 11mm x 1.5mm - $100
d) .97 grams - 18mm x 11mm x 2mm - $175
e) 1.9 grams - 25mm x 18mm x 2mm - $310 – complete slice.
f) 4.5 grams - 45mm x 28mm x 2mm - $675 – complete slice.
2) end pieces: I have only these two:
a) 5.1 grams - 25mm x `17mm x 8mm - $670
b) 61.9 grams - 40mm x 29mm x 26mm - $5500 – a real museum piece. In fact, I bought this one to be my “pass around” Mars rock to replace my softer NWA (7397) similar sized end piece that I believed was already sold (to a museum).
---

ANCIENT METEORITE COINS (Obverse)
(Click on Image to Enlarge)  

ANCIENT METEORITE COINS (Reverse)
(Click on Image to Enlarge)  

ANCIENT METEORITE COINS: Large silver Tetradrachm. Around 17g and 30mm diameter.
I have offered the small bronze coins and a few of the much smaller silver coins of this design on past lists (and sold out). I finally was able to get an assortment of these wonderful large (the largest, highest denomination I believe) silver coins of the same design and time period to offer. As with the other smaller pieces, these are mostly Anitochos I, Soter (280-261BC) pieces (I do have one Antiochos II piece though). I have 3 of the cheapest ones (I’ll line them up next to each other in the group photo) and a few nicer (more expensive) pieces. As with the other coins, these ARE NOT MADE OUT OF A METEORITE. These have the head of the ruler facing right on the obverse and the reverse has Apollo seated on a conical rock (the omphalus) that was believed to be a meteorite. So, these coins are a very early (if not THE earliest) coins to have a meteorite represented on them.
a) Nice but circulated example - $375
b) A bit nicer but Antiochos II - $400
c) Better still - $675
d) The best - $950

Please note:
Shipping: For small US orders $4 is OK for now. Larger orders are now $8 to $15 (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 (Canada seems to be right around $11). I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders (both local and overseas). 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 when possible.

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 235

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale- List 235

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
LIST 235

March 3, 2020

Dear collectors,

I am (finally) back from Tucson and (more or less) caught up on things. Some adventures this year but NOTHING like last year. The only thing that died on me this year was my hover-board (well, my uncle did pass away but that was in July of last year. None the less, that did change a few things logistically this year). I only get to use the hover board during the shows (my driveways are gravel and the runway is fairly soft dirt, when it isn’t wet – sticky deep adobe mud when it is). It seems that the battery on my toy now only wants to run for around half an hour or so (it used to last well over an hour). Welll, I was riding it pretty heavy one evening (including a couple complete trips around the hotel as they re-surfaced the parking lot recently). I thought it is getting a bit mushy/ sluggish in its response but it had only been running for 20 minutes or so. A quick glance at the battery light showed it was still green. However, as I was standing on it, moving around (and listening to music at a volume that was a tad high) and I failed to notice that it was flashing a steady “low battery” warning. Well, I leaned into it (got going pretty fast) and then tried to do a sharp turn. Nope, didn’t work out so well. When the engine on my airplane quits (which it seems to enjoy doing from time to time) most people think the thing falls out of the sky like a sack full of wet bricks. Nope, the wing works fine and, as long as I have left myself something to land on within gliding distance, it is no big deal to land and effect repairs (and fly back out when done if I really picked the landing spot well). Not so with a hover-board. When it quits (and it can indeed do it quite suddenly if you are not paying attention) it does indeed drop you to the ground like a bag of bricks. Yep, this is indeed what I did. I watched the machine roll away with a flashing red light (dead battery) signal and that is what dumped me. I managed to pull a bunch of muscles in my left leg and bung up my left hand a bit. Nothing broken (but my pride) but I did end up taking an extra day to pack down the room and load the car (I was moving quite slowly). We also had another “vanenture” on the trip home. The fan belt kept coming off of its pulleys as we were heading to Flagstaff. This happened a half dozen times (about every 8 miles – we got good at putting it back on) on the way into town. We made into town, thankfully. Blake tightened up the clamp on the upper hose on the radiator as that is where it looked the fluid leak was coming from. I wish it ended up being that easy. We ran the car for 20 minutes in the parking lot of the hotel we decided to spend the night at. No leak! So, off we went to Auto Zone to get a new tensioner pulley (it seemed to be making a bit of noise, was old and may have gotten damaged in the shock(s) of the belt coming off). Well, while there, after turning the engine off (this is when a car gets the hottest and builds up the most pressure) the radiator blew a ¼” or so hole (near the hose clamp – so we weren’t to far wrong in the spot of the leak, just what it was exactly). So, time for a radiator replacement right there in the parking lot. Unfortunately, they did not have the right one (and did not have the spare man-power to help me go pick one up). So, a 1.5mile walk (well, more of a shuffle like a post apocalyptic zombie as I had all of those torn leg muscles to deal with) to O’Reily auto parts (who DID have the right radiator but also not enough man-power in house to bring it to us – I got a Lyft back to Auto zone though). It all went together just fine but did take us until a bit after 9pm to get the job done. The next morning, starting the car brought out all kinds of bad metal on metal screeching noises. Hmmm, maybe something else (like the alternator or, my guess, the power steering pump – two items that really can’t be replaced by a couple of shmucks with limited tools in a parking lot). We ran the car for close to half an hour. The noises didn’t go away but they did lessen. My thought was “bad belt” (despite the distinctly metal on metal sounds) as if it were another mechanical failure the noises should be getting worse, not better. A quick experiment showed I was right. So, a new belt (which we now knew how to install in under two minutes) and we were on our way without further trouble (other than the 4” nail that flattened one of the new tires on the car right in the driveway in front of my house. No clue where the nail came from, just happy the thing went flat here and not while on the road. The way we were loaded it would have taken considerable effort, and lots of unloading, to get to what we needed to change a tire on a roadside somewhere). So, adventures, a couple days delay but nothing as serious or difficult as last year.

The things listed below are things that were either left with me (consignments) or I purchased at the show. The show was a bit slower this year (largely due to none of the Chinese buyers and less than half of the Japanese buyers showing up this year, thanks to the Corona virus scare) but not terrible. However, this meant that I, as I did not sell as much, I did not buy as much either. At this point, it looks like this might be my only “after Tucson” e-mail offering (unless I start turning up more smaller things I forgot I bought as I do the finishing touches on putting away all that I brought home). I suspect that my next post/ offering will be my mailed catalog which I plan to try and get out a little earlier than normal as I (supposedly) will be going to Yellowstone with some friends in the earlier part of May this year.

List 235
(click on image to enlarge)

CAMPO DEL CIELO, Agentina: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).
These are both complete slices just drastically different in sizes. The smaller piece is prepared and etched on both sides. However, this piece is small enough that you don’t get a real good idea of the etch texture of this meteorite. The large slice is really thin and, as such, is only polished and etched on one side (it would be a really, really hard job to polish out and etch this backside on a slice this thin). However, the prepared side shows a nice classic Campo etch structure.
a) 70.5 gram complete slice etched both sides – 80mm x 55mm x 3mm - $90
b) 459.4 gram complete slice etched one side – 300mm x 130mm x 2mm - $500

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
This is a part slice (1/4 of a complete slice – two cut edges and one long natural edge) I picked up in Tucson this year. I had offered pieces like this on my April 2019 list and rapidly sold out. When I got the chance to pick up some pieces to satisfy people that have been on a waiting list for a specimen from that offering I bought all I could. It turned out that only this piece was “left over” (I wasn’t able to get many specimens, unfortunately). This piece shows a nice vibrant etch and is etched on both sides.
47.0 gram etched part slice – 42mm x 38mm x 3mm - $94

GEBEL KAMIL, Egypt: Iron. Ni-rich ataxite, ungrouped. Found 2008.
This is a relatively large piece of the material that was found surrounding a crater in Southern Egypt that was found by way of Google Earth satellite photographs. This is a fairly young fall event, estimated to have happened around 5000 years ago. This was also very likely a witnessed event to some degree. Debris from the impact partly covered up what was an active trade route road near the crater. I personally wonder if this event isn’t part of the reason that many of the words for iron in ancient languages relate to the sky and stars (it sure would have been a wake-up call as to where some iron came from). This piece is a classic shrapnel piece as most meteorite specimens found around the crater were (I think a fairly large fusion crusted piece was found in the crater). This has the nice dark chocolate brown wind-polished surface texture over most (around ¾) of its surface. The bottom (part that was in the sand all of these years) is a bit more rusty orange in color and looks to have a couple areas of thin glass (from melting of the sand it landed in) still adhering to it. This stuff has gotten quite hard to come by lately as the folks that took the effort to pick this up some years ago have pretty much sold out (and new material is not being recovered).
2538g complete natural shrapnel fragment as found – 170mm x 80mm x 40mm - $2100

MOUNT DOOLING, Australia: Iron. Coarse octahedrite (IC). Found 1909.
Here are two great complete slices that clearly show the recrystallized etch structure pieces of this unusual meteorite shows. It was this etch structure (along with its anomalous chemistry) that showed that a “new” iron meteorite found some 400km away near Perth in 1960 was actually a transported piece of Mt. Dooling. This meteorite is a member of the fairly rare IC group of iron meteorites. Both of these pieces are etched on both sides. I have these priced quite a bit below what I priced (generally smaller) pieces of this meteorite at on a mailed list (and sold out) a couple years or so ago.
a) 106.9 gram etched complete slice – 150mm x 55mm x 2mm - $320
b) 115.9 gram etched complete slice – 155mm x 60mm x 2mm - $348

NWA (6963): Martian (Shegottite). Found 2011. Tkw = about 8 kilograms.
Originally, only about an 80g fusion crusted piece of this was recovered. Once it was found that this was a Mars rock, intensive recovery efforts lead to many more pieces (totaling somewhere around 8kg) being found. This is a wonderful super thing slice that is in a membrane style display holder (though NOT one of the “Membrane Boxes” some of us remember from some years ago). This has a small round base that allows this to be stood up on one corner for a nice shelf display (I’ll put the piece that allows this below the holder in the group photo). This slice has a nice shock vein near one side that was/ is large enough to have some gas bubbling.. These bubbles likely contained little bits of the Martian atmosphere at one time (and, if any are still intact inside this vein those likely would still contain some traces of Martian atmosphere). I have priced this quite a bit below what most people offering pieces of this material seem to be asking at this point.
5.20 gram slice – 70mm x 33mm x 1mm - $1300

NWA (8402): Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Found 2014. Tkw = 23.85kg.
Here is a nice complete slice of this really classic looking mesosiderite. This has a wonderful mix of metal (making up around 40% of the cut surface area – often as cm sized rounded nodules) and silicates (of which around 75% is pyroxene and 25% is plagioclase). This particular meteorite was also found to have a fairly high amount of silica. This, along with the high content of plagioclase, some equilibrated silicates and lack of brecciation show this to be member of the rare A-3 type mesosiderite group. This is only the 4th meteorite known of this type. The other three are all named recoveries that are pretty much impossible for a collector to obtain: Emery, SD, Lowicz, Poland and Morristown, TN.
148.8 gram complete slice – 140mm x 75mm x 4mm - $1000

NWA (12630): Lunar, anorthositic breccia: Purchased February 2019. Tkw = 233g in two piece.
I suspect that this another piece of the stuff that came out in a big way a bit over a year ago and has lots of different NWA numbers assigned to various pieces of it (the stuff I’ve had is NWA (11273). However, this does have a distinctly different appearance to it. This is clearly an anorthositic breccia but the clasts are not nearly as clear as other specimens. I suspect that this particular part of the meteorite has suffered higher impact melting effects (or this might be a different meteorite recovery completely that got mixed in). Regardless, this is a nice complete slice in a 75mm x 60mm glass fronted display box.
1.82 gram complete slice – 30mm x 27mm x 1mm - $200

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.