P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Phone: (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 260 - March 21, 2023
Dear Collectors
Here is yet another “After Tucson” list. I will probably need a couple more of these to clear out the things that came to me in Tucson (or were shipped to me right before).
A note that will not mean a lot to most of you: I have had a fax machine since close to when they first came available. It was really handy for those overseas, don’t speak the language orders (this was well before e-mail). I (and the other folks) found it easier to write things like a letter but have it on the other end as fast as a phone call. Others preferred to send credit card info this way. In fact, I have had this done as recently as my last mailed offering! However, I had someone try to send a fax to me a week or so ago and my fax seems to have completely come apart internally (some important old plastic gear or such obviously broke). I tried to receive the incoming fax but could not. The top of the machine just kept jumping up (trying to open the cover on its own) while making terrible snapping and popping sounds. I looked into it and, nope, this is something I can’t fix. So, at this point I have to let those few of you that liked contacting me this way, I cannot be reached that way right now. I will likely look into seeing if I can find an old thermal paper fax I can use (my tearing into this – a plain paper fax – showed me a HUGE security risk inside that I had not considered before), but that may take time. In the meantime, I will be completely destroying the carbon paper inside of this old one (burning it I suppose) and will NOT be able to receive fax messages until further notice, unfortunately.
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Click on image to enlarge.
CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite. Found 1891.
I have had a really hard time getting ANY Canyon Diablos lately. My main supplier told me in December of 2021 that he would NOT be selling me anymore of his. And, so far, he has lived up to his words. I have not gotten a single gram from him. This isn’t him trying to be mean or anything, it is just things have changed (for the better) for him. His main business is doing a lot of the small retail weekend shows all over the place. In 2020 and most of 2021 those were not happening. He had no place to sell his stuff (the bulk of which is various raw lapidary rocks/ dino bone, hand- made cabochons and jewelry (quite well done). For a couple years he simply NEEDED someone like me to buy in bulk to survive. Now that his large list of shows are back (I’ll be seeing him in Creede early August) he can sell all the Canyon Diablo he wants/ needs to at full retail now. Anyway, I was offered these end pieces from a “secondary” source. He had just got done cutting and etching what was a pretty ugly (rounded lump) of a Canyon Diablo the he had gotten some years earlier from the guy I used to get mine from. Well, this thing etched up beautifully! It has one of the best etches I have seen from Canyon Diablo (not sure if the photo will really show this though). Oddly, the fact that this was just a rounded, not pretty piece is part of the reason it did etch. You see, the Canyon Diablos that have retained their nice sculpted character (aside from usually being too pretty to cut up) have often gotten “heat treated” during the impact. They were “close to the fire” of the crater forming event. This hardened them so they are far more likely to retain a neat shape but also far, far more likely to NOT show much of an etch pattern, if any (and it was such a piece that I tried to use for a geochemistry glass talk once. After nearly blowing up the geology department’s saw (the guy overseeing its use could not/ would not believe me when I said it absolutely CANNOT be run using the saw’s powered screw feed) the end pieces then embarrassed me in front of the whole class when neither of them would etch (I did not have time to try it before the actual lecture day and would not have had time to try cutting open another piece, IF that would have been allowed, anyway). So, these two separate pieces are actually just halves of the same meteorite that was properly cut and etched. I have also priced these below what I have to ask for Canyon Diablo in general these days. Really nice paperweights!
a) 774.9gram etched end piece – 95mm x 65mm x 30mm - $900
b) 1114.9 gram etched end piece – 100mm x 80mm x 30mm - $1300
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Click on image to enlarge.
I have had a really hard time getting ANY Canyon Diablos lately. My main supplier told me in December of 2021 that he would NOT be selling me anymore of his. And, so far, he has lived up to his words. I have not gotten a single gram from him. This isn’t him trying to be mean or anything, it is just things have changed (for the better) for him. His main business is doing a lot of the small retail weekend shows all over the place. In 2020 and most of 2021 those were not happening. He had no place to sell his stuff (the bulk of which is various raw lapidary rocks/ dino bone, hand- made cabochons and jewelry (quite well done). For a couple years he simply NEEDED someone like me to buy in bulk to survive. Now that his large list of shows are back (I’ll be seeing him in Creede early August) he can sell all the Canyon Diablo he wants/ needs to at full retail now. Anyway, I was offered these end pieces from a “secondary” source. He had just got done cutting and etching what was a pretty ugly (rounded lump) of a Canyon Diablo the he had gotten some years earlier from the guy I used to get mine from. Well, this thing etched up beautifully! It has one of the best etches I have seen from Canyon Diablo (not sure if the photo will really show this though). Oddly, the fact that this was just a rounded, not pretty piece is part of the reason it did etch. You see, the Canyon Diablos that have retained their nice sculpted character (aside from usually being too pretty to cut up) have often gotten “heat treated” during the impact. They were “close to the fire” of the crater forming event. This hardened them so they are far more likely to retain a neat shape but also far, far more likely to NOT show much of an etch pattern, if any (and it was such a piece that I tried to use for a geochemistry glass talk once. After nearly blowing up the geology department’s saw (the guy overseeing its use could not/ would not believe me when I said it absolutely CANNOT be run using the saw’s powered screw feed) the end pieces then embarrassed me in front of the whole class when neither of them would etch (I did not have time to try it before the actual lecture day and would not have had time to try cutting open another piece, IF that would have been allowed, anyway). So, these two separate pieces are actually just halves of the same meteorite that was properly cut and etched. I have also priced these below what I have to ask for Canyon Diablo in general these days. Really nice paperweights!
a) 774.9gram etched end piece – 95mm x 65mm x 30mm - $900
b) 1114.9 gram etched end piece – 100mm x 80mm x 30mm - $1300
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Click on image to enlarge.
JIKHARRA (001), Libya: HED achondrite (Eucrite, melt breccia). Found 2022. Tkw = 3 tons.
Yep, the total known weight is in the tons. Estimated at about 3 when this was reported but I have heard it might really be closer to 4 or even 5!! THAT is a LOT OF VESTA! However this huge discovery has now made it possible to own an achondrite (plus one that actually has a known body of origin!) for the price of most average common chondrites! I myself picked up a nice bowling ball sized piece of this for my collection. I have these two nice, clearly natural individuals and a couple ugly longish fragment pieces that I plan to run through the saw sometime before too long and offer slices of. Really crappy weather so far this entire year (I put a new solar hot air panel on my house the day before Christmas and we’ve had pretty much an endless string of clouds, wind, rain, snow since). So, no slices for a while, but I can offer these nice individuals (I’ll probably just buy more if these sell. I am a fan of Vesta stuff – particularly at these kinds of prices).
a) 792.3 gram individual – 90mm x 80mm x 50mm - $590
b) 2327.4 gram individual – 130mm x 110mm x 80mm - $1600
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Click on image to enlarge.
NWA (11615): Ordinary chondrite (LL3). Found 2017. Tkw = 3114 grams.
A single stone was found and purchased in Temara, Morocco by a meteorite dealer in August of 2017. This is a nice meteorite, showing LOTS of closely packed, well-formed chondrules. This is quite fresh. There are very few blebs of fresh metal in this (and most of them are very small. This shows almost no attraction to a magnet. I suspect that someone might have thought that they had found an achondrite (the chondrules don’t really seem to show on the natural edge) when they found this one. Still, an unequlibrated (type 3) stone isn’t bad! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any info on approximate “subtype” (3.3, 3.6, 3.7….). There was a note of the chrome content of the olivines (apparently, it is possible to get a sub-type from that info) but I have no clue how to interpret that right now, unfortunately.
99.4 gram complete slice – 95mm x 85mm x 4mm - $300
NWA (14016): HED achondrite (Eucrite, melt breccia). Found 2020. Tkw = 29.4kg.
Nope, this IS a eucrite melt breccia like the Jikharra above but it is a completely different animal. I have seen cut pieces of the Jikharra and, to be honest, it is kind of a mushy mess inside (it is almost all melted). This does not have a whole lot of melt in it, just dark veins and zones between the angular still eucritic looking (for the most part) clasts. This has much more the look of a Lunar anorthositic breccia. In fact, some people that saw pieces of this I had in Tucson thought that it was. Nope, just a nice complete slice of a lunar looking eucrite and the second cheapest eucrite that I am aware of (the Jikharra above is number one in that respect).
259.8 gram complete slice – 180mm x 125mm x 5mm - $850
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Click on image to enlarge.
PHILIPPINITE: Tektite from the Philippines.
This is, at the moment, my largest tektite of any sort (I know, I recently had a customer wanting to know what are the largest tektites I have. My next largest is a somewhat chipped 100g Chinese tektite spherical piece). I got this along with some nice NWA chondrite pieces as part of a “collection”. This is at least 3 times larger than any of my other Philippinites. This also has a lot better grooving to it. This does not have a lot of the classic big deep grooves all over it (those kinds are like $3/g now) but it has some. A nice, natural, unchipped grooved individual.
167.9 gram natural individual – 65mm x 45mm x 30mm - $165
SPRINGWATER, Canada: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1931.
Well, actually this piece was found in the fall of 2008. This is one of the samples that turned up when a group of US meteorite hunters researched the area, put in a little (a lot?) effort and hit pay dirt. I don’t recall how much they ended up finding. It was a substantial amount. However, almost all of it stayed in Canada. You can’t just find a take home a Canadian meteorite. You have to get export papers for it and you can only get that once everyone in Canada (museums, research institutes, etc) has what they want of it first. In this case, there was some left over to be exported, but not a lot. I believe that this is the LAST piece the person I got this from (one of the partners in the re-discovery of the strewn filed has (the last he is willing to sell now anyway). This is a really nice, solid piece (that looks like it might even show some fusion crust remnants).
296.4 gram natural individual – 70mm x 45mm x 40mm - $5500
TIRHERT, Morocco: HED achondrite (Eucrite). Fell July 9, 2014. Tkw = about 8kg.
This isn’t cheap but it sure has the “Wow!” factor. This is clearly an early after the fall recovery piece. It has the best, shiny fusion crust I have seen on a eucrite in many, many years. I think the Early Camel Dongas might have given this a run for its money but those started looking pretty ratty in a matter of months after the strewn field was discovered (Camel Donga is not recorded as a fall but it must have fallen VERY soon before it was discovered as the pieces did weather quite quickly). This does have a number of small corner and edge chips, but, in a way, those make this more interesting as they show a wonderfully contrasting almost white unbrecciated eucrite interior.
121.9 gram beautifully crusted individual – 50mm x 35mm x 35mm - $9800
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Shipping: Shipping rates, right now, have gone up yet again. They seem to have added a "holiday time surcharge". Now it seems that the cheapest I can send a small padded envelope order for is close to $6 at the moment. Regardless, I'll keep the shipping on these (they are small and light weight) at a simple $5 for now for US shipping.
Small overseas orders are around $16 (Canada seems to be right around $15).
Yep, the total known weight is in the tons. Estimated at about 3 when this was reported but I have heard it might really be closer to 4 or even 5!! THAT is a LOT OF VESTA! However this huge discovery has now made it possible to own an achondrite (plus one that actually has a known body of origin!) for the price of most average common chondrites! I myself picked up a nice bowling ball sized piece of this for my collection. I have these two nice, clearly natural individuals and a couple ugly longish fragment pieces that I plan to run through the saw sometime before too long and offer slices of. Really crappy weather so far this entire year (I put a new solar hot air panel on my house the day before Christmas and we’ve had pretty much an endless string of clouds, wind, rain, snow since). So, no slices for a while, but I can offer these nice individuals (I’ll probably just buy more if these sell. I am a fan of Vesta stuff – particularly at these kinds of prices).
a) 792.3 gram individual – 90mm x 80mm x 50mm - $590
b) 2327.4 gram individual – 130mm x 110mm x 80mm - $1600
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Click on image to enlarge.
NWA (11615): Ordinary chondrite (LL3). Found 2017. Tkw = 3114 grams.
A single stone was found and purchased in Temara, Morocco by a meteorite dealer in August of 2017. This is a nice meteorite, showing LOTS of closely packed, well-formed chondrules. This is quite fresh. There are very few blebs of fresh metal in this (and most of them are very small. This shows almost no attraction to a magnet. I suspect that someone might have thought that they had found an achondrite (the chondrules don’t really seem to show on the natural edge) when they found this one. Still, an unequlibrated (type 3) stone isn’t bad! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any info on approximate “subtype” (3.3, 3.6, 3.7….). There was a note of the chrome content of the olivines (apparently, it is possible to get a sub-type from that info) but I have no clue how to interpret that right now, unfortunately.
99.4 gram complete slice – 95mm x 85mm x 4mm - $300
NWA (14016): HED achondrite (Eucrite, melt breccia). Found 2020. Tkw = 29.4kg.
Nope, this IS a eucrite melt breccia like the Jikharra above but it is a completely different animal. I have seen cut pieces of the Jikharra and, to be honest, it is kind of a mushy mess inside (it is almost all melted). This does not have a whole lot of melt in it, just dark veins and zones between the angular still eucritic looking (for the most part) clasts. This has much more the look of a Lunar anorthositic breccia. In fact, some people that saw pieces of this I had in Tucson thought that it was. Nope, just a nice complete slice of a lunar looking eucrite and the second cheapest eucrite that I am aware of (the Jikharra above is number one in that respect).
259.8 gram complete slice – 180mm x 125mm x 5mm - $850
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Click on image to enlarge.
PHILIPPINITE: Tektite from the Philippines.
This is, at the moment, my largest tektite of any sort (I know, I recently had a customer wanting to know what are the largest tektites I have. My next largest is a somewhat chipped 100g Chinese tektite spherical piece). I got this along with some nice NWA chondrite pieces as part of a “collection”. This is at least 3 times larger than any of my other Philippinites. This also has a lot better grooving to it. This does not have a lot of the classic big deep grooves all over it (those kinds are like $3/g now) but it has some. A nice, natural, unchipped grooved individual.
167.9 gram natural individual – 65mm x 45mm x 30mm - $165
SPRINGWATER, Canada: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1931.
Well, actually this piece was found in the fall of 2008. This is one of the samples that turned up when a group of US meteorite hunters researched the area, put in a little (a lot?) effort and hit pay dirt. I don’t recall how much they ended up finding. It was a substantial amount. However, almost all of it stayed in Canada. You can’t just find a take home a Canadian meteorite. You have to get export papers for it and you can only get that once everyone in Canada (museums, research institutes, etc) has what they want of it first. In this case, there was some left over to be exported, but not a lot. I believe that this is the LAST piece the person I got this from (one of the partners in the re-discovery of the strewn filed has (the last he is willing to sell now anyway). This is a really nice, solid piece (that looks like it might even show some fusion crust remnants).
296.4 gram natural individual – 70mm x 45mm x 40mm - $5500
TIRHERT, Morocco: HED achondrite (Eucrite). Fell July 9, 2014. Tkw = about 8kg.
This isn’t cheap but it sure has the “Wow!” factor. This is clearly an early after the fall recovery piece. It has the best, shiny fusion crust I have seen on a eucrite in many, many years. I think the Early Camel Dongas might have given this a run for its money but those started looking pretty ratty in a matter of months after the strewn field was discovered (Camel Donga is not recorded as a fall but it must have fallen VERY soon before it was discovered as the pieces did weather quite quickly). This does have a number of small corner and edge chips, but, in a way, those make this more interesting as they show a wonderfully contrasting almost white unbrecciated eucrite interior.
121.9 gram beautifully crusted individual – 50mm x 35mm x 35mm - $9800
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shipping: Shipping rates, right now, have gone up yet again. They seem to have added a "holiday time surcharge". Now it seems that the cheapest I can send a small padded envelope order for is close to $6 at the moment. Regardless, I'll keep the shipping on these (they are small and light weight) at a simple $5 for now for US shipping.
Small overseas orders are around $16 (Canada seems to be right around $15).
