P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 268 - November 6, 2023
Dear Collectors,
Here is another assortment of things that (mostly) came home with me from the Denver show. There are a couple “expensive” items here but most of these are more in the realm of normal collectors as opposed to high end collection or museum kind of priced things.
ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
I sure remember when this stuff was common. I had several multi-kilo bags of pieces. Granted, most of those were just broken (but fresh) fragments I got in a museum trade. I have long since sold all of those. This is a piece that is a typical “individual” from this fall. This has the usual edge chipping, broken areas (these things obviously came in through the atmosphere tightly packed as almost all pieces of this meteorite show evidence of banging into each other and late in the fall breaking). This is a quite fresh piece. It has a couple spots of minor adhering dirt but is otherwise very fresh (I remember some of the stones I got late in the recovery process. They were being brought to the shows by a guy straight from the area and were “recent” finds. These things were very weathered and some even had lichen growing on them!). This has around 40-50% primary fusion crust with the remainder being chipped/ broken or (very) thin secondary crust. A nice example of a typical stone from this high demand but kind of hard to come by these days fall.
28.3 gram individual – 24mm x 24mm x 23mm - $565
LAAYOUNE(002), Western Sahara: Lunar (feldspathic breccia).Found Jan 2022. Tkw = 5.15kg.
I like these because they may be fragments but they look entirely like complete, natural individuals. They have (likely wind) rounded shapes, smooth somewhat shiny surfaces. No recent fresh breaks. These may not be whole individuals as they fell (but, then again, they might be) but sure loom the part regardless. These are clean and nice – no caliche or dirt stuck to these.
1) Natural individuals as found:
a) .68 grams – 15mm x 7mm x 4mm - $28
b) 1.22 grams – 13mm x 11mm x 4mm - $49
c) 2.60 grams – 20mm x 11mm x 8mm - $100
d) 5.30 grams – 22mm x 13mm x 13mm - $200
LIBYAN GLASS SCARAB:
Here is a piece of Libyan Desert Glass that has been carved into a scarab. Not high end art work on this (it also has an (eye of Horace???) carved on the bottom flat side) but it is still kind of neat. One of these was found in king Tut’s burial mask. Every so often that info gets out in a TV program of one sort or another. I often know when this happens as my phone starts ringing with lots of people asking for Libyan Glass whenever one of these programs goes on the air. IF I knew when one was going to run, I’d probably be better hanging onto this particular piece and offering it 9at a substantially higher price) then. This piece was part of the 2014 COMETS (Colorado Meteorite club) auction during the Denver show that year (it was September 14th to be exact). This comes with the Comet Shop label that came with the piece from that auction.
6.9 gram carved scarab – 29mm x 21mm x 9mm - $65
MOLDAVITE:
This is the largest piece of moldavite I have had in a long time. I would have sold this if I just had it a day or two earlier at the show (I had a customer that was looking specifically for a large, rounded moldavite specimen. All I had was a fairly large (18g) flatish piece). Anyway, this is an entirely complete (no recent chips or dings) that is almost egg shaped. It has really nice texture/ etching that radiates out from the center (giving this an oriented look). The only “problem” I see with this is that it still has some of the conglomerate matrix they find these things in (when they find them at the source instead of as rounded, water tumbled specimens found down- stream after they have naturally weathered out of the matrix) I suspect that this piece was found very close to where it was locked in the conglomerate gravels. This allowed it to keep its really fine etching but did not have the chance to weather out the last of the matrix pieces still stuck to it. This is really, really pretty when a light is put behind it.
. 25.8 gram intact individual – 45mm x 30mm x 15mm - $700
NWA (989): Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3). Found 2001. Tkw = 146grams.
This is another piece that the collector I got it from picked up at the Comets auction. It turns out that it was the same auction (September 14, 2012) that the Libyan glass scarab above came from. This is a nice ½ slice (one cut edge, rest are natural) and is an excellent representative of this type of meteorite. Not a lot of known weight on this piece, but I have no idea how many/ how much (if any) pairings turned up on this. As such, I am pricing this at (or slightly below – I didn’t have to pay a huge amount to get this) what a common NWA CV3 of this freshness would normally cost these days. This comes with the “Wondering Wonders” (Andrew Abraham – a friend I have not seen in a couple years now, unfortunately) info card that came with it at the auction.
11.99 gram ½ slice – 30mm x 27mm x 5mm - $95
NWA (14041): Lunar (feldspathic breccia). Found Jan. 2021, Tkw 11.7kg.
I didn’t get this at the show. I actually had it sent to me as I had (for a while after Tucson) a customer that was trying to get moderate samples of every Lunar meteorite that they did not have (and they did not have this one so…..). I did sell them a piece (but then have not heard back from them since) and had these nice pieces left over. These are all part slices. They have a really glassy look to them (this material obviously suffered some high shock levels). It has a nice overall color/ texture look to it. It has mostly rounded clasts (light tan, gray, some kind of pinkish) in a greenish gray matrix.
1) Part slices:
a) .48 grams – 11mm x 10mm x 1mm - $45
b) .93 grams – 15mm x 10mm x 2mm - $85
c) 1.54 grams – 20mm x 18mm x 1.5mm - $135
d) 2.95 grams – 39mm x 19mm x 1mm - $255 - best surface for the $.
e) 4.67 grams – 32mm x 25mm x 2mm - $395
f) 7.10 grams – 45mm x 19mm x 3mm - $550
NUEVO MERCURIO, Mexico: Ordinary chondrite (H5). Fell December 15, 1978. Tkw = 9+kg.
I think a similar piece to this was my very first chondrite witnessed fall. It also came from the same place – Robert Haag. I am quite certain though that this was a piece that was picked up after I got mine as it has some browning to the crust. However, this DOES still have the original Robert Haag label/ info card that came with it! I don’t see to many pieces of this meteorite floating around these days but I am pretty certain that the label is far, far rarer than the meteorite these days. This is an absolutely complete specimen (no chips or dings) and is set up in a small Riker box.
2.64 gram individual – 16mm x 11mm x 8mm - $75 – has Robert Haag label.
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Shipping:
It does seem that I can, generally, send small orders (jewelry box in a padded envelope kind) for around $5 still This is by what they are now calling “Ground Advantage”. Though it is claimed to be going by trucks (and supposedly a couple days longer) I have found that things are getting to where they need to be pretty much the same time as the old “first class” used to. For things people prefer to send “Priority”, the costs are $10 for fairly small things (whatever can fit in a small flat-rate box) and around $17 for large things.
For overseas shipping, it does look like the “First Class” option still exists (thankfully, because most overseas small flat-rate costs are bumping up against $50 these days). Though I have not sent much this way, what research I have done seems to indicate that those small orders (jewelry box in padded envelope) are still around $15 or $16 to send. Obviously, I’ll have to custom quote shipping on larger items (as usual).
