Blaine Reed Meteorites- List #278 11MAR2025

LIST 278 - March 11, 2025

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

Dear Collectors,
Here is the second in a series of “After Tucson” offerings. It is likely that I will be cramming more of these offerings much closer together time wise than I usually do (but then, last year, I hardly did any of them the entire year). This is partly because many of these things are consigned items. The owners may want some of these back before I get a chance to try and sell them. I’d rather try to earn a little $ sending them to a buyer than just spending shipping money to send them back home. I don’t think some of them would be terribly happy if I waited until summer to offer their items to collectors (but then, maybe I could hold them for the Denver show if they didn’t sell then).

I do know “tax time” is upon us. I myself need to get that taken care. I generally have to wait as various museums and institutes send me 1099 forms (that MUST be reported on/ in my taxes). Unfortunately, a good number of them wait until the last legal day (March 31st I think) to send them out to me. Anyway, I do know many of us are worried about taxes. I also know many of us will be getting a refund (I will this year, thanks to the solar/ battery backup system I spent the later part of last year getting up and running). IF you are one of those lucky folks that are going to be getting a refund AND you see something on this list (or past and future ones for that matter) you want and would like to spend some of that refund $ on it, just let me know. I’ll be happy to set aside the item you want until your refund money comes in. All I ask is, if you do set something aside with me for this, let me know ASAP if, for some reason, you change your mind on wanting the specimen after all.

CAPE YORK, Greenland: Iron. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1815.
This piece does belong to me. It did not come with any kind of label. I couldn’t do anything with it in Tucson as I was not exactly certain just what it was (I had my suspicions though). Yes, I had the XRF and I could have run it to get its makeup (Ni, Co, Ge, P, S…). However, the actual data I needed (analysis results on different iron meteorites) were all in a book sitting on a shelf in my office. Thankfully, my suspicions (from remembering very similar pieces floating around years ago) turned out to be correct (or this would have ended up being very expensive Toluca or El Sampal for me). The XRF data clearly says this IS a piece of the famous Cape York meteorite. There was indeed a fair amount of this available years ago. Not so much these days. I don’t think I have had a piece of it in around 10 years or so. I do have people asking for pieces of this from time to time. So, (this is NOT intended to be any kind of threat) if this does not sell as is fairly soon, I will cut this into smaller pieces to offer on a future list (maybe even my Spring 2025 mailed list, if I do one). This is a very typical rectangular slice (all cut edges) with a nice medium octahedrite etch and only a few tiny troilite inclusions. I’ll make up some kind of label for this and (if the buyer wants) put it in a Riker.
211.1 gram rectangular slice – 95mm x 80mm x 3.5mm - $3000

DALGETY DOWNS, Australia: Ordinary chondrite (L4). Found 1941. Tkw = 217kg.
I offered some of this material on a recent mailed catalog (my January 2024 one, actually). I ended up selling quite a lot of it from that offering. All of those were substantially smaller than this piece. This is a piece that came (years ago) from David New (I think I even bought a number of pieces of this meteorite from him when he first brought it out all those years ago). Like my smaller pieces, this has a good amount of metal (not a ton – remember, this is an L-type) in a matrix that is mixed chocolate brown and light tan. This piece is a thick part slice. It has one cut edge with the remainder being the typical old natural fractured surfaces this meteorite typically shows (I don’t ever recall seeing ANY actual fusion crust, weathered or not, on a piece of this meteorite). This specimen comes in a Riker with its original David New label.
106.8 gram part slice – 70mm x 50mm x 10mm - $425

FORREST LAKE (b), Australia: Ordinary chondrite (L6). Found Oct. 1980, Tkw = 26kg.
I sure remember this meteorite! I think it was the second stone meteorite I ever got a piece of. I got a nice slice of it from Robert Haag, actually. At that point, he had it listed as Forrest(b). Now (with the finding of many more meteorites in the “Forrest” area) this is officially Forrest (002). I suspect that this particular specimen got into collector’s hands very early after this meteorite was found and recognized. At least before the area was “simplified” to just Forrest (otherwise there might have been lots of odd names. Forrest Lake, Forrest ditch, Forrest rock…..). Regardless, this is actually one of the better pieces of this meteorite I have seen. Just looking at it in the Riker, I thought it was a thick slice. Nope, this is actually a nice end piece. Most of the back side does look to be an old natural fracture surface but the edges do show fusion crust (and thumb-printing) in some areas. The interior is the typical fine-grained metal in a nice mottled light tan to brown matrix. This comes with its original David New label.
132.8 gram end piece – 80mm x 60mm x 10mm - $600



GRETNA, Kansas: Ordinary chondrite (L5). Found 1912. Tkw = 58.7kg.
Interestingly, this one comes with an old Cureton Minerals Co, Tucson label. I remember them from very early in my collecting days. I even remember visiting them at their house in Tucson and buying a few things from them one time. I know I had some pieces of this meteorite (both as collection pieces and for sale) and those came from them. This is a nice ½ slice. It has one cut edge. The remainder is split between fusion crusted and old natural fractured edges. This has a good amount of metal visible in a nice mottled brown and tan matrix. This comes in a Riker and (of course) comes with its Cureton label.
95.5 gram ½ slice – 70mm x 55mm x 8mm - $450

SALAICES, Mexico: Ordinary chondrite (H4). Found 1981. Tkw = 24.5kg.
This is actually a really nice specimen. It has a ton of fresh metal in a mottled dark green and brown matrix. This has a high polish on both sides. This would, actually, make really nice lapidary material (cabochons and such). NOT going to do that to this piece though. This is a complete slice – no cut edges. A bit less than half of the edge is obviously weathered fusion crust. The remainder is old natural fracture surfaces. I may be showing a bit of ignorance here, but this has a clear “S167” painted on the edge in Huss or Nininger style but I do not know who’s collection (private or University) this may have come out of. This comes in a Riker with its David New label.
98.2 gram complete slice – 80mm x 65mm x 5mm - $450

SELDEN, Kansas: Ordinary chondrite (LL5). Found 1960.Tkw = 1.56kg.
Here is a meteorite that I am fairly certain that I have never had a piece of. This is not terribly surprising as only a single stone was found. Also, looking over the listing of what institutions have how much of this in the British Museum’s “Catalogue of Meteorites”, it shows that Fort Hayes Kansas State College has the main mass where they list the “main mass” and list that as the total 1.56kg found weight as their collection piece size. Well, that cannot be completely correct as other institutions (but only around 6) have (generally fairly small) pieces. This is an interesting piece. It has the odd look of many classic LL meteorites – very little metal and a mottled light to medium brown matrix that just looks different from H’s and L’s. This piece is basically an end piece (and probably quite rare as such) that has had its bottom and one small end cut off. Maybe call it a bookend? It does stand up very nicely on its own outside of its Riker. The best part though, is the fact that the “natural” part of its backside is (mostly) obvious thumb-printed fusion crust. A likely rare (locality/ name anyway) meteorite that I have not seen a piece of before. This comes with its original David New label (where it has this as an “AMPHOTERITE” – what they used to call LL type meteorites years ago).
48.6 gram part end piece – 53mm x 35mm x 15mm - $500

Shipping:
Pretty much any of these should be able to be safely shipped in a small Priority flat-rate box (if you are only buying one of them anyway). As such, US shipping on any of these is $10. I probably need to check overseas rates again (they seem to change almost weekly these days) but I think it cost me around $45 to send a small flat-rate box to Europe a couple months ago and around $32 on one going to Canada more recently.

I can (and generally will) look into rates for “Ground Advantage” here in the US. However, I have found recently that there are substantial penalties for not using a “standard box size/ shape” (basically any box that is not post office supplied) that often make the costs of shipping “Ground” as much or even more than using whatever size Priority flat-rate box would hold the item(s). I’ll let you know if Ground will save you money. As for overseas/ out of US shipments, I can only use priority, unfortunately. This is because First-Class is not allowed for a package that has a value at or above $400 (a value that all of the pieces here exceed, at their listed prices anyway).

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