Blaine Reed Meteorites- LIST 265- 24AUG2023

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

LIST 265 - August 24, 2023

Dear Collectors

Here is a modest offering of some things that I have had here for some time but have not had a lot of time to catalog/ sort out. This will be my only offering until sometime after the Denver show (coming waaaayy to soon) – notes on that below).

Denver Show: I will be at my normal spot – Crowne Plaza (15500 E. 40th Ave – I-70 and Chambers Rd) in the “Frisco” meeting room (on the WEST side of the actual Convention center building – near the actual Hotel building). I will (or should) be open from Friday morning the 8th until Saturday afternoon (the 16th). I am scheduled to be open at 10am but will try to be open a bit earlier than that most days. My official closing time is 6pm but I do hang around and keep the door open however late (within reason) people are visiting (PLEASE NOTE, if you are wanting to visit “after hours” you will likely have to got through the hotel lobby doors as they often turn off and lock the doors that are right next to my show space). I will be “on the road” for this trip from around the 5th until the 18th. I’ll be VERY swamped once I get back home as it looks like I may have to unload and then turn right around an head back over the mountains to Wichita, Kansas (the guy I get my watch repair parts from is looking to retire and is getting pretty insistent that I go out to their NAWCC watch/ clock convention (starting on the 20th!!!) to buy whatever parts I think I might need or risk, in the future, going without). Basically, this whole next month is going to be a big, difficult mess for me.



ABADLA (002), Algeria: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Found 2021, Tkw = 800 grams.
Here is about the only “affordable” CM2 that I am aware of. I have only a few crumbs of Murchison, sold all of my Aguas Zarcas. I’d love to sit on these pieces and wait to see what the asteroid return missions (one back already, one back soon) shows what those asteroids are made of. IF it is basically this kind of stuff, expect a pretty good run on all things CM2 (or CI1??). These are all the “usual” small fragments/ individuals as found.
1) Natural fragment:
a) .54 grams – 11mm x 7mm x 5mm - $35
b) .84 grams – 12mm x 9mm x 7mm - $50
c) 1.07 grams – 14mm x 8mm x 6mm - $65
d) 1.20 grams – 15mm x 10mm x 6mm - $70

ADMIRE, Kansas: Stony-iron (Pallasite).
I don’t remember exactly where I got this, just know it has been quite a long time now. This looks to be a “cleaned” (tumble polished?) individual of this meteorite. I didn’t know that many small individuals were actually found. This is actually quite pretty (I just don’t need it collecting dust at the back of a shelf here any more as it has for the last decade or so). It has obvious large somewhat gemmy olivine crystals in a blue-gray looking (on the exterior anyway) metal matrix. A nice piece that I wish I had bought a bunch of IF it was available affordably back when I got it. I have not had trouble with this rusting BUT I would recommend keeping it in a sealed desiccant container if you live in a humid area.
24.7 gram cleaned individual – 40mm x 28mm x 17mm - $150

DAR AL GANI (400), Lunar meteorite (anorthositic breccia). Found 1998,Ttkw = 1425 grams.
Boy oh boy do I remember when this discovery was reported. I think it happened right AFTER I paid $87k for a piece of the DaG (262) that was about the size of a nickel (and not much thicker). I think it might have been right before I got that piece in my hands and prepared it for selling. Nervous time indeed (were many kilos about to found, flooding the market making my little 262 nickel worth a fraction of what I paid?????). Anyway, the DaG 400 did come out but there was never a lot of it available. This piece IS the piece I picked up for myself at the time (much larger surface area than the small DaG 262 piece I kept for myself (and still have). Not super exciting these days, given the volume of Lunars available now but still a historic and interesting little piece.
.243gram slice – 20mm x 7mm x 1mm - $250

NAGJIR (001), Western Sahara. Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3). Found 2012, Tkw 4.8kg.
Here are a few slices of a nice, really classic looking CV3. These are this, show lots of chondrules and even a few of the CAI inclusions fluoresce a bit (pink/ purple).
1) Slices:
a) 7.5 grams – 48mm x 40mm x 1.5mm - $110
b) 12.2 grams – 90mm x 38mm x 1.5mm - $170
c) 15.9 grams – 110mm x 45mm x 1.5mm - $200




NWA (10401): Lunar meteorite (anorthositic troctolite). Found 2015. Tkw 354 grams.
This is kind of different from other lunars I have seen. It kind of looks like a plae green/ tan version of an Aubrite. It has distinct shock veins, many of which are large/ wide enough to have gas bubbles. I remember when this first came out. Being “something new and different” it was NOT particularly cheap (and me, being a cheap ------- ahh skate, I didn’t pick any up at the time). A bit (but only a little) more expensive than some of the other Lunars available BUT definitely interesting and worth the little extra (I’ll be keeping a piece myself). I can break a piece up into smaller pieces if anyone out there wants a smaller piece of this. I just didn’t want to start breaking apart these rather pretty pieces until I had a distinct need to.
1) Slices:
a) 4.3 grams – 30mm x 23mm x 2.5mm - $525
b) 7.3 grams – 35mm x 30mm x 2.5mm - $900 - complete slice
c) 11.3 grams – 47mm x 28mm x 3mm - $1200

SEYMCHAN, Russia: Stony-iron (Pallasite).
Now (unlike the similar Admire above) I do remember where I got this (if not exactly when). I got this as a trade in from a local Tucson collector towards something a bit bigger/ better I had that he wanted (he shows up each year with a small bag of “trade stuff”. He never buys, just trades). This, like the above Admire, does not look like a fragment of a much larger mass (though this one might be ½ of a slightly larger natural piece). Like the Admire above, I am not aware of many small seymchan pieces having been found. This shows a fair amount of visible olivine in the (in this case, mostly brown) metal matrix. This does have some fracturing. I don’t think that this is from it rusting after recovery as much as it is probably freeze-thaw fracturing. These things are found in the far north in an ancient glacial moraine. Being near the surface (where such a small piece would be findable with metal detector equipment) in such an environment would make it highly likely to suffer this fate.
60.7 gram natural fragment – 50mm x 25mm x 20mm - $280

TIGLIT, Morocco: Enstatite achondrite (Aubrite). Fell Dec 9, 2021. Tkw 2.22kg.
I remember the big hoopla when this fell. I had a lot of people telling me to “buy it now” (right after it fell). Well, the price was really high at that point (these days, even a common chondrite fall is many $hundreds/ gram until it is seen if there will be enough to satisfy the “will loose sleep if I don’t own a piece of the new one – will pay (almost” any price to get it” collectors. This one had more going for it. It had (has) a classic Lunar breccia look to it. That is what it was believed to be initially. As such, I seem to recall its price was around $1000/g. IF I were in the area (and had my XRF, I could have sorted this out in about a minute. I would have known it was NOT the world’s first Lunar witnessed fall but a (still quite interesting” Aubrite fall. These are all natural fragments as found. DON’T mix them in with any of your lunar meteorites or you’ll need my help sorting them back out.
1) Natural fragments as found: $175/g
Sizes available: .31g, .75g, 1.33g, 1.69g

Shipping:
Once again, the post office had turned everything upside down as far as shipping costs go (changes were made back in early July). I still can ship small US orders for around $5 BUT that is by way of something they are now calling "Ground Advantage". They have COMPLETELY eliminated "First Class" (which used to be "air-mail"). I have used this a number of times in the last month or so and it does not seem like it is taking all that much longer to get where it needs to be. I am a bit concerned though that being now "Ground" shipping that I may start to see more damaged and lost packages as these will now be mixed in with ALL the large, heavy things that are still going by the old "Parcel post". The problem here is that now, thanks to these changes, the cheapest I can send anything by air is in a small or medium Priority flat-rate box (using my own boxes for anything is drastically more expensive I have found. It seems the Post Office is doing everything they can to "standardize" shipping containers and is forcing us into flat-rate boxes only). So, sending things by air will be a minimum of $10 ($17 for larger things).

As for "Overseas" (any out of US orders) I am not quite certain yet how this effects things, I just know it will. As such, I will have to custom quote shipping on any out of US orders. I suspect though that this will force me to use Priority for these sales with "First Class" no longer existing and no possible "Ground" option available. I suspect I'll be forced into the flat-rate boxes here as well (and those START at nearly $50 for a small!!).

Blaine Reed Meteorites for Sale- List 253 30SEP2022

Blaine Reed Meteorites

P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
brmeteorites@yahoo.com
LIST 253 - September 30, 2022

See Full Note at bottom of post concerning substitutions.
I want everyone receiving this post with imbedded group photos of the items on this list that the item pictured MAY NOT be the identical item you receive (except for cases where I have clearly labeled an item as “the only one this size” or similar).
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SERICHO, Kenya: Stony-iron (pallasite). Recognized 2016. Tkw = tons.
Nope, these are NOT more pallasite pieces. These are actually pieces (all be it small) of etched iron from this huge find. It turns out that among the hundreds (thousands?) of pieces of this meteorite recovered only a tiny few (as in single digits, like 2 or 3, I am told) were all iron, no olivine specimens. This IS somewhat like Brenham, another large pallasite recovery where almost all pieces are olivine-rich but some are found that are all iron. Seymchan was only known as all iron specimens (and classified as such) for decades after it was originally discovered and only further intensive search work decades later turned up olivine baring specimens showing its true identity as a pallasite (but those olivine baring pieces were always, by far, rarer among the recoveries). These are nice small etched on both sides ALL IRON specimens that I got from a person that landed one of the two or three all iron pieces from this large and now famous find.
1) Part slices, etched on both sides:
a) 4.0 grams 18mm x 9mm x 3mm $14.00
b) 8.9 grams 17mm x 16mm x 3mm $31.00
c) 14.7 grams 30mm x 27mm x 3mm $50.00
d) 22.1 grams 39mm x 24mm x 3mm $75.00
e) 32.0 grams 40mm x 27mm x 3mm $100.00

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GHUBARA, Oman: Ordinary chondrite. (L5), black, xenolithic. Found 1954.
Here are some slices from a 6kg chunk of this meteorite I set aside many years ago. These turned out to be some of the best cut Ghubara I have ever seen. They have a nice medium to dark gray color showing lots of lighter colored chondrules and cm plus sized clasts and lots of fresh metal. This meteorite is more than just an L5. It is actually a regolith breccia that is composed of L5 clasts in an L3 host matrix (probably should have been called an L3 with L5 xenoliths actually). What is even cooler still is that recent research work has shown that this meteorite is a regolith breccia from the surface of the ORIGINAL L-parent body! That body got blown apart in an impact around 500 million years ago – resulting in a drastic increase in large (and small) impacts here on Earth not long after.
1) Slices:
a) 8.4 grams 30mm x 23mm x 4mm $17.00
b) 17.0 grams 35mm x 27mm x 5mm $34.00
c) 34.1 grams 38mm x 38mm x 5mm $65.00
d) 74.8 grams 75mm x 57mm x 5mm $140.00
e) 151.6 grams 90mm x 80mm x 5mm $270.00 – nice complete slice.
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NWA (14930): Ordinary chondrite. (L5) – melt breccia, W0. Found 2021. Tkw = 4798 grams.
Well, this was likely found late 2021 perhaps. I bought this during the delayed (until April) 2021 Tucson show. A dealer at my hotel had it sitting with a few other meteorites on the end of a table in room that was, otherwise, filled with fossils. I could see that it had melt/ flow veins all through it on its wind-polished surface so I knew it was going to be on the more interesting side of “ordinary chondrite”. Yep, I was right. Cutting and research revealed areas that are shocked and or melted but looked somewhat typical chondrite (these zones do contain small clasts of unmelted L5 material – hence the “L5” part of its classification) surrounded by thick veins of obviously melted and flowed material. Nice and interesting meteorite. Lots of metal and sulfides (some small and blebby) in a green/ gray matrix (the melt veins lean more towards green).
1) Slices:
a) 4.8 grams 19mm x 16mm x 5mm $18.00
b) 8.2 grams 25mm x 16mm x 5mm $30.00
c) 14.4 grams 40mm x 30mm x 4mm $50.00
d) 29.0 grams 55mm x 50mm x 4mm $100.00
e) 62.2 grams 95mm x 68mm x 5mm $210.00
f) 142.2 grams 125mm x 100mm x 4mm $450.00 – complete slice.
2) End pieces:
a) 478.3 grams 125mm x 60mm x 30mm $1100.00
b) 2620.5 grams 125mm x 90mm x 90mm $5000.00 – Main mass.
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DJOUA (001), Algeria: Enstatite achondrite (Aubrite). Found 2021. Tkw = 22.5kg +
It has been a looooong time since I have offered a new (or old) Aubrite on a catalog. I picked this up in Tucson as unpolished slices. Wow, I had no idea an aubrite could be so hard to polish. It took considerable time (and more than a few sanding belts) to polish these. This is really interesting stuff. It has a white, light tan to dark brown mixed/mottled texture. Many (most, actually) of my pieces have a considerable amount of fresh metal scattered through parts of them. XRF work suggests that this is likely from other meteorites impacting the parent body of this material (the metal-rich pieces have a way higher iron content then the iron-poor areas clearly showing that the iron is NOT from being brought out of the minerals. But then, the minerals in this type meteorite contain very little iron to begin with). Neat stuff at a really affordable price for this very rare type of meteorite.
1) Slices:
a) .88 grams 10mm x 9mm x 3mm $25.00
b) 1.5 grams 18mm x 17mm x 3mm $42.00
c) 3.2 grams 25mm x 11mm x 3mm $88.00
d) 6.5 grams 23mm x 22mm x 4mm $175.00
e) 12.2 grams 33mm x 22mm x 5mm $315.00
f) 26.6 grams 57mm x 33mm x 4mm $650.00 – Complete slice.
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IMPACTITE: Henbury Crater, Australia.
Impactites are a glassy froth resembling volcanic cinder but are created by the melting of rock during the formation of an impact crater. These pieces were formed around 5,000 to 10,000 years ago when the Henbury meteorite impact created 13 craters. As meteoritic material is mixed in with the terrestrial rocks during impact, impactites contain small bits of meteorite mixed throughout them. If these were cut, these pieces of meteorite would be visible as small bright shiny metal blebs. I did not cut these particular specimens as my experience the last time I had some of these from Henbury (quite a few years ago) showed me that these particular impactites are a bit to frothy to cut and polish nicely. So, I decided to leave these in their “as found” condition. I have only one of the largest size listed here.
1) Specimens as found:
a) 1.8 grams 18mm x 15mm x 10mm $4.00
b) 3.0 grams 24mm x 15mm x 10mm $6.00
c) 5.5 grams 30mm x 18mm x 10mm $11.00
d) 7.7 grams 30mm x 23mm x 16mm $15.00
e) 11.1 grams 30mm x 30mm x 18mm $22.00 – only one this size.
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A note concerning the photos in this offering:
I want everyone receiving this post with imbedded group photos of the items on this list that the item pictured MAY NOT be the identical item you receive (except for cases where I have clearly labeled an item as “the only one this size” or similar). I usually have (and sell) multiple pieces of each size of the items listed (sometimes MANY of them – far to many to put all in a photograph for people to pick from). What I normally do is send the first person that asks for a particular item the largest piece available in whatever size range it is that the specimen they are buying belongs to (when I send a piece that is not in the photo, you generally get a very similar but slightly larger piece). This came about as MOST of my sales from these periodic (three times a year) catalogs come from the paper mailed version of this offering where no photos exist so customers don’t know exactly what the piece they ordered looks like (and are usually quite happy to receive a slightly larger specimen instead). So, you can certainly request the exact item in the group photo and I am happy to send it if someone else hasn’t already requested it. Please let me know if you would likely ONLY be happy with receiving that actual pictured piece(s) and I will NOT do any substitution(s) in your order.


Shipping: For small US orders $5 is needed now. Larger orders are now $10 to $16 (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 $16 (Canada seems to be right around $14). I’ll have to custom quote any larger items/ orders (both local and overseas). Registration (recommended on more valuable overseas orders) is $20 plus insurance (but insurance is relatively cheap for registered packages).

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. However, 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 233: Fresh from CR Aguas Zarcas and more

List 233: Fresh from Costa Rica Aguas Zarcas and more

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
LIST 233

December 17, 2019

Dear collectors,

I am back from my Costa Rica trip. It was overall an enjoyable trip, though often quite warm and sticky (I am not used to humidity, even at relatively cooler temperatures). Kevin’s side of the country was, for the most part, sunny and dry. The dry season, with its strong winds out of the east, was setting in (we did still get some time of sitting in the clouds and watching fog drift by thing – a very, very rare thing for me to see in my part of Colorado but common where he is perched up on the top of a mountain). However, I feared that this might mean that the other side of the mountains might be rainy. I figured the clouds carrying moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to the east might end up getting the moisture wrung out of them as they got stuck against the easterly mountainsides and made their way up and over. Yep, this is indeed what we found. Aguas Zarcas was heavy cloud cover, lots of rain, some (generally minor) wind and at times surprisingly chilly for a tropical area. All of this certainly meant that we weren’t going to be out stomping around looking for specimens on our own (also because it was a bad time for lots of really dangerous snakes in the area. Unlike the ”nope ropes and danger noodles” crawling around my area theirs don’t make any noise to let you know you are getting to close. I have indeed managed to avoid getting bit by a rattle snake hidden in the leaves on a trail a couple times by knowing what they sound like - and that sound ain’t like they present it in the movies folks). So, we had to limit ourselves to meteorites that locals had already found. Unfortunately, it seems that not much is being found any more. Some of the few pieces that were recovered recently are certainly showing their age (I hand picked and avoided those, paying a higher price to do so of coarse) and other pieces (that looked to have been recovered quite earlier) seem to have become special family heirlooms (“not for sale”). Oh well, at least I tried. The few things I did pick up are listed here below at a price only a little lower than I have offered similar pieces in the past (but then, I didn’t really pay much less at the site and am not even including the travel expenses as part of these piece’s direct cost at this point). I am having trouble deciding what piece(s) I want to keep for myself so I thought I’d let fate decide – I’ll keep whatever is the nicest piece listed below that does not sell from this offering.

The other items on this list are the last of the Riker mounted display pieces I picked up as a collection during the Denver Show. All of these have labels and it turns out that one more of these is also a Casper labeled piece that had that label hidden under another different one. I’ll make notes in the descriptions below of what labels come with each specimen.

NOTE: As with the last offering, shipping on most of these (everything but the Aguas Zarcas) is going to be a bit higher (around $5 or $6 for a single item for basic US) as these, being in glass fronted display boxes, will have to be shipped packed in boxes. My usual jewelry boxes in a padded envelope won’t work for most of these pieces.

List 233
Click on Image to Enlarge

AGUAS ZARCAS, Costa Rica: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2). Fell April 23, 2019.. These purchased Dec 9th, 2019.
These are the pieces that, as mentioned above, I bought on the trip I just got back from. These are all natural fragments (though the largest has some claim to being a complete individual) and, after a light cleaning on my part, are quite fresh. Each has at least some fusion crust present (actually, all but the smallest have quite substantial amounts of crust). As mentioned above, the largest piece looks like it could be considered a complete individual. It has around 45% nice thick primary crust coverage with the remainder being angular “broken” surfaces. However, careful inspection shows non-sharp (micro roll-over) edges on the primary crust where it meats one of these “breaks”. Also, a hand lens shows obvious (but small) patches of thicker fusion crust on the high spots of most of these broken surfaces (so they can’t be “after the fall” breaks). One surface looks to be crusted so thin that it looks almost like a smoke coating. There is some hints of smoothing of the break as well as the fact that no real inside texture/ structure can be seen (aside from a couple larger chondrules poking through perhaps) whereas the other fragments (clearly showing post fall breaks) the interior structure is clearly visible. Regardless, I am not pricing this piece higher because of any of this.
1) Natural fragments. All have some crust:
a) 4.4 gram fragment – 16mm x 15mm x 15mm - $350 – about 15% crust covered.
b) 5.0 gram fragment – 20mm x 20mm x 10mm - $400 – about 45% crusted.
c) 7.4 gram fragment – 25mm x 18mm x 12mm - $590 – about 50% crusted.
d) 22.2 gram fragment/ individual – 32mm x 28mm x 20mm - $1700

BRENHAM, Kansas: Stony-iron (Pallasite). Found 1882.
This is a Riker display that has two part slices – one 3.4g (17mm x 12mm x 5mm) and the other 13.5g (25mm x 20mm x 9mm). This has two labels; one (unnamed) that has the two weights as 3.4g and 14.2g. The label that was hidden underneath was a Casper label (for the 3.4g piece) that has “Happy Holidays!” written in the ‘Remarks” line. The larger piece looks to have a Nininger number on it. It certainly has the exact look of a Nininger number paint job, starts with the proper “10” for a Nininger Brenham but the next number/ letter is damaged enough to make it unclear exactly what was painted here (the last 3 look to be 119 though this could be “10M19”). This piece is also the typical thickness that Nininger would have cut back then.
2 part slices – 3.4g and 13.5g (possible Nininger piece) in Riker - $100

CAPE YORK, Greenland: Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1818.
Now this is a neat little Riker display. It has a label identifying the Meteorite (name, type, etc.) with “1 GM” handwritten on it, a nice etched 15mm x 10mm thin slice of the meteorite in a gemstone holder and a commemorative Greenland postage stamp (that looks to be from 1978). The stamp seems to show what looks like might be an ancient knife/ tool of some sort (this is indeed what the locals used these meteorites for) on a background of a large etched slice. I am assuming the “1GM” is the rough weight of the slice, but I didn’t pull all of this apart to find out.
15mm x 10mm etched slice, stamp and label in Riker box - $90

ESTHERVILLE, Iowa: Stony-iron (Mesosiderite). Fell May 10, 1879. Tkw = about 320kg.
This is a thick part slice that has its larger portion being the silicate material (though there are still substantial chunks of iron, they show a bit better on the backside). This comes with a metal “meteoritelabels.com” label with the proper 4.75GM weight written in pencil in the specimen weight space.
4.75 gram part slice – 20mm x 13mm x 6mm - $90

HOLBROOK, Arizona: Ordinary chondrite. (L/LL6). Fell July 19, 1912.
Here are two nice complete fresh individuals in a Riker display. These come with a Schooler’s label that has the pair weight of 1.6grams. Yep, this is exactly what my scale got. The smaller piece weighed .68g on my scale and the larger was .92g. The larger piece has some areas of secondary crust (of the type and thickness that leaves no doubt that it is secondary crust, unlike some of the areas on the largest Aguas Zarcas listed above) but is NOT broken and is certainly a complete individual (the smaller piece is pretty much completely covered in primary crust).
2 complete individuals .68g, .92g in Riker with Schooler label -$40

MILLBILLILLIE, Australia: HED achondrite (Eucrite). Fell 1960/ found 1970.
This is a part slice of the more unusual fine-grained textured area of this meteorite (the vast majority of Millbillillie showed a brighter black and white salt and pepper texture). This piece has one natural edge that shows some weathered fusion crust that has some of the orange spots/ staining that shows that this really is a Millbillillie. This has a nice label with it but this does not say who’s label (Ann E. Nonimus??) it was. This label has the weight as 2.4 grams but my scale showed this as 2.2 grams.
2.2 gram part slice – 22mm x 10mm x 3mm - $30

NORTON COUNTY, Kansas: Enstatite achndrite (Aubrite). Fell February 18, 1948.
This is a Riker containing two small fragments of this meteorite along with a Schooler’s label. The label has these as .8g together and this is indeed what my scale showed. Each of these fragments is roughly 10mm x 5mm in size.
2 fragments totaling .8g in Riker with Schooler’s label - $25