P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 265 - October 4, 2023
Dear Collectors
Here is my Fall/ after Denver list. Sometimes, I have a list already set to go before I head off to the Denver show. Not this time. Kind of glad I waited. I never know what I am going to pick up at a show. Sometimes I get something new or exciting. This time I got something fairly special while at the show and I am glad I did not have to wait until my New Year’s list to offer it.
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DRONINO, Russia: Iron (ungrouped), Ataxite. Found 2000. Tkw = >3000kg.
I have had pieces of this meteorite off and on for some 20 years now but I think this is the first time I have ever had enough pieces to offer on a catalog. The first piece of this (a 40kg specimen) was found in July 2000 by a guy while he was heading home from mushroom hunting (something I like to do myself when we actually get enough moisture. This year, I was only able to get a couple handfuls of Chantrelles). It was a few years later before it was recognized as a meteorite. Of course, that set off a rush (both scientific and meteorite hunters) of expeditions to the area. It is suspected that a crater (guesstimated to be around 30m diameter) is hidden/ buried in the area. These are all small polished slices that show the classic shiny metal with rounded blobs of troilite texture of this ataxite. Part slices; polished both sides: a) 5.1 grams - 23mm x 13mm x 2.5mm - $20
b) 10.1 grams - 29mm x 13mm x 3mm - $35
c) 15.5 grams - 37mm x 23mm x 2mm - $50
d) 25.5 grams - 39mm x 37mm x 2.5mm - $80
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NWA 11615: Ordinary chondrite. (LL3), S2, W2. Found 2017. Tkw = 3.11 kg.
Though I am glad to have gotten this at the show, this is not the “special” thing I brought back from Denver. A single 3114g stone was found before August of 2017 (when it was sold to a dealer who bought it in Temara, Morocco). The interior shows lots of closely packed, well-formed chondrules (mostly lighter grays, tans to almost white) set in a finer-grained matrix that has altered kamacite (giving it kind of an orange brown coloration that sets off the chondrules quite nicely). Unfortunately, as with most “3s” these days, the sub-typing was not done on this (meeting the Nomenclature Committee’s updated requirements to do this is a very expensive and time consuming process so few type 3s are getting this done these days). So, a nice, affordable representative type 3 chondrite but no idea what the subtype (3.2, 3.5, 3.7……) might be.Slices: a) 6.0 grams - 25mm x 20mm x 4mm - $21
b) 10.9 grams - 30mm x 21mm x 5mm - $37
c) 23.5 grams - 45mm x 31mm x 5mm - $75
d) 52.1 grams - 90mm x 47mm x 4mm - $160
e) 102.8 grams - 90mm x 88mm x 4mm - $310 – complete slice.
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NWA 15893: Enstatite chondrite (EH6). Found 2022. Tkw = 3.4kg.
This is the item that I am glad to have waited on for this list. It has been a loooong time since I have had a decent fresh enstatite chondrite of any type to offer (I think NWA (1910) was the last one more than a decade ago and that was priced at $50/g). These things (particularly fresh ones) are incredibly rare. This particular meteorite is only the 9th of its type known (with the total of type being not much over 8kg). To be honest, at first glance, this does not look a whole lot different that an H5 orH6 (this could blend in quite nicely with the slices of Cassilda I recently got back from cutting). However, in prepping this for sale (breaking large pieces down) this clearly showed its type. The smell of sulfur was quite obvious (E chondrites smell so bad this way they are a challenge to cut and polish without good air flow). It took several washings to get the smell off of my hands after preparing the pieces listed here. Here is an affordable chance to up-grade the enstatite chondrite in your collection (I know I already have).Slices: a) 2.2 grams - 21mm x 14mm x 3mm - $33
b) 4.4 grams - 26mm x 20mm x 3mm - $65
c) 8.5 grams - 34mm x 29mm x 3mm - $125
d) 16.1 grams - 45mm x 36mm x 3mm - $235
e) 32.1 grams - 60mm x 55mm x 3mm - $450
f) 89.2 grams - 120mm x 80mm x 3mm - $1150 - not in photo.
g) 117.9 grams - 125mm x 118mm x 3mm - $1500
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BECHAR (003), Algeria: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia). Found 2022. Tkw = several kilos +
It seems quite a lot of pieces of this have been found since its discovery on March 2, 2022. However, MOST of those pieces are very small, angular (often caliche covered) fragments. I managed to acquire a batch that had, generally, slightly larger pieces and more pieces that were clearly surface-find individuals (all be it highly wind-polished). It is samples of these (after air abrasion cleaning to remove most of the dirt and caliche) that I am offering here. I don’t recall really ever offering any “natural individual” Moon rocks before. Perhaps a single specimen here or there over the years but not an assortment of such. These are all rounded/ sub-rounded specimens and not the usual obvious angular fracture (freeze-thaw?? Deserts are often warm but they often do get moisture and cold enough to have this action of destruction occur from time to time) fragments. As mentioned above, I have cleaned these quite extensively (this stuff has clearly been on the ground a loooong time) so they do have an obviously cleaned look to them. As such, many do show the brecciated internal structure. These, by far, are the cheapest (by more than half) of any Lunar material I have ever offered.Individuals: shape as found but cleaned: a) 1.50 grams - 15mm x 9mm x 6mm - $45
b) 2.28 grams - 16mm x 13mm x 10mm - $68
c) 3.24 grams - 18mm x 13mm x 10mm - $92
d) 4.51 grams - 19mm x 18mm x 10mm - $120
e) 6.60 grams - 24mm x 16mm x 10mm - $165
f) 10.44 grams - 20mm x 17mm x 16mm - sold.
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TRINITITE: Glass from first nuclear explosion.
Thanks to the (little bit) of hype concerning the movie “Oppenheimer” that came out in July there has been something of an “explosion” (pun intended) of interest and demand for pieces of Trinitite, I decided to go ahead and offer these larger pieces that I picked up some years ago now. These are pieces I lucked into during the Socorro Mineral Symposium and are bigger and nicer than pretty much any I have ever had before. I got these from old inventory from a rock shop (in El Paso Texas I think where it was) that was being cleared out from a shed full of rocks as the (long retired) owner was moving to California. As all of the pieces of this I have had, these are natural, as found, rounded blobs of glass from sand that was melted by the world’s first nuclear explosion on July 16, 1945 about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico at 5:29 in the morning. This material has gotten quite expensive lately (for a long time it could NOT be sold on E-Bay as it was “man-made radioactive”. True, but not very radioactive (My equipment shows this material to be less radioactive than many/ most brick buildings). They have changed the rules on E-Bay concerning this material causing demand (and prices) to increase a lot the past couple years. Once these “bigger” pieces are gone, I will have only the usual one or two gram pieces available.Natural pieces as found: a) 6.7 grams - 35mm x 23mm x 9mm - $65 - not piece in photo..
b) 8.2 grams - 30mm x 26mm x 12mm - $82
c) 11.5 grams - 35mm x 30mm x 15mm - $115
d) 14.1 grams - 47mm x 28mm x 15mm - $150 - only piece this size.
“WRONG BUTTON” copper coin.
I picked these up in Denver and thought they were kind of neat. I put some out with the (much smaller than above) Trinitite pieces I had at the show and sold a few. These are pure copper 1 oz (28.35g ounce/ 16 to a pound NOT troy ounce, 31.1035g used in precious metals) coin that has an American eagle (with olive branches in one claw and arrows in the other) on one side. The other side is why I got them. It is a couple aliens sitting in lawn chairs watching fire-works (much like many of us do on the 4th of July). However, the main fire work is clearly nuclear mushroom cloud with the words “Wrong Button” above it. Kind of works with a piece of trinitite as a display.
a) coin on its own - $7 each
b) coin with purchase of any trinitite piece (including my smaller ones not listed) - $5 each
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Shipping:
Shipping costs are something of a confused mess since the post office changed rates a few months ago. I can still send small US orders for right around $6. However, this is by way of “Ground (advantage)”. “First-class” (air mail) no longer exists. So far, I have not noticed much in the way of delays using this “Ground Advantage” (or packages going missing but, to be honest, I have not sent a lot of packages out the past couple months). IF you want true “air-mail” the only option is “Priority” now: What little I have done with that lately shows that the cheapest this can be done is the “small flat-rate box” for a little over $10. I have found that for items that are just a little too big for those kind of boxes prices get expensive very quickly (often making the medium flat-rate box (aside from the ridiculous amounts of extra packing materials often needed) at $17 the next best option.
For overseas (or Canada for that matter) I will have to custom quote shipping on each order. IF no alternative to “Priority” remains (first class (which used to be around $15) can’t really do “ground” on overseas) it may mean that the only remaining option is (once again) a Priority small flat-rate box (which is around $48 to most places these days!!!!).
