Blaine Reed Meteorites- List 142. More interesting small rarities

Blaine Reed Meteorites- List 142. More interesting small rarities

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 143

October 22, 2013

Dear Collectors,

Here is my second “after Denver list”. Much like the last one, this is mostly small, inexpensive (from an overall price stand point not necessarily from a price per gram view though) but interesting things offering. Some of these things are meteorites that I am certain I have never had pieces of before.

BURSA, India: (L6). Fell 1946. Tkw = 25 kilograms.
I am quite certain that this is a meteorite that I have not had a piece of before. I am not certain that I have ever had a meteorite from Turkey before. As much of the things on this list, these are small fragments. Unlike many of the other pieces listed though, the plastic research vial contains the lot of smaller pieces in this case. Part of this is because there was no real stand out pieces size wise but part of it was that most of these small pieces show nice patches of fusion crust (not the case with the larger but single piece specimens).
a) .04 gram fragment in a capsule - $12
b) .075 gram fragment in a capsule - $20
c) .133 grams fragments (most showing crust) in plastic vial - $40

DHURMSALA, India: (LL6). Fell July 14, 1860. Tkw = 149.4 kilograms.
This is a batch of fragments (up to 4 or 5mm in size) in a lidded research vial labeled “Dhurmsala #41a chips”.
.28 grams o fragments in vial - $40

ERGHEO, Somalia: (L5). Fell July 1, 1889. Tkw = 20 kilograms.
This might be one of the ones that I have never offered a piece of before. However, I think I had a piece of this in my micro collection that I sold privately years ago (helped pay or the land I am living on now I think). These are a mix of capsules of fragments, capsules that have only one fragment and the plastic research vial (that is labeled “Ergheo $45a chips” that contains a single (the largest) fragment I had in this batch.
a) .055 gram fragment in capsule - $10
b) .10 gram of fragments in capsule - $20
c) .152 gram fragment in plastic lidded vial - $30

GOLD BASIN, Arizona: (L4). Found 1995. Tkw = about 200 kilograms.
This is a neat little specimen I won at the COMETS auction during the Denver Show. I think this was the first of the specimens being sold with the proceeds going to the club. They put on one heck of an event with great food, beer and fun. To support them, I bid on this. It didn’t cost a lot but I was more than thrilled to help out the club. This piece is interesting in that it comes in its original University of Arizona labeled bag (they were doing research on this material when it started showing up). The bag is labeled with a bright (almost neon) orange label that has “UA 1016, D. Hill” on it. The piece is only 1.8 grams. It is an angular fragment but still has one side (15mm x 6mm) that is obviously old weathered crust.
1.80 gram natural fragment – 16mm x 7mm x 6mm - $10

KUNASHAK, Russia: (L6). Fell June 11, 1949. Tkw = 200+ kilograms.
I still have a slice or two of this that I offered on an earlier list. This however is a batch of fragments (up to 6 or 7mm sized) in a lidded vial that is labeled “Kunashak #741 chips.
1.0 gram of fragments in lidded research vial - $15

NULLES, Spain: (H6). Fell November 5, 1851. Tkw = 8.85 kilograms.
This is one I am certain I have never had before. Not even in my own collection. These are all single fragments in either a capsule or (the largest) a plastic lidded vial. The vial is labeled “Nulles #783 chips”.
a) .16 gram fragment in capsule - $30
b) .26 gram fragment in plastic vial - $50

ORGUIEL, France: Carbonaceous chondrite (CI1). Fell May 14, 1864. Tkw = 10.5+ kilograms.
This is a batch of fragments in a capsule that is in a membrane box. It looks to be that about 2/3 of the weight is in one fragment that is roughly 8mm x 5mm x 4mm.
.25 grams of fragments in capsule in membrane box - $300

SANTA ROSALIA, Mexico: (Pallasite). Found 1950. Tkw = 1631 grams.
Personally, I think this is, perhaps, the rarest most interesting thing on this list. It is not a fall (so there will be a large segment of the collecting community that will have no interest in it) BUT it is a PALLASITE! And not just any pallasite, but one that is probably nearly impossible to acquire (really low total known weight). I think next to falls (perhaps even exceeding falls) pallasites are the most important collection focus (they are generally beautiful and truly rare). I know I have never had any pieces of this one. Two of these pieces have at least some visible olivine and two are “just” metal fragments (though they may show pockets where there was olivine). The largest is in a pill vial labeled “Santa Rosalia 599.1”.
a) .18 gram cut fragment with some olivine in a capsule – 7mm x 4mm x 2mm - $40
b) .37 gram cut metal fragment – 14mm x 5mm x 2mm - $40
c) .72 gram cut metal fragment – 10mm x 8mm x 2mm - $80
d) .54 gram cut fragment with obvious olivine – 14mm x 4mm x 3mm - $150

SARATOV, Russia: (L4). Fell September 6, 1918. Tkw = 328 kilograms.
This is another lidded plastic research style vial that is nearly full of fragments, dust and chondrules. The vial is labeled “Saratov #740 chips”.
1.5 grams of fragments in vial - $10

Blaine Reed Meteorites For Sale - List 140, a few new things 21AUG2013

Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 140, a few new things 21AUG2013

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 140

August 20, 2013

Dear Collectors,
Here is a short list of some things I picked up recently. I thought about holding them for display for the Denver show in a few weeks but then decided to offer them now.

GAO, Burkina Faso: (H5). Fell March 5, 1960.
Here is probably the largest Gao I have ever had. Now I have had this piece twice. I had it briefly in Tucson one year where it rapidly sold to a collector. Now the collector has sold it back to me. This is a nice complete individual. It does have one edge chipped/ late break area about 50mm x 12mm in size. The remainder of this is nice black fusion crust that shows nice contraction cracks and even some flow lines (very rare for Gao) in areas. This is a blocky piece but the crust is all (aside from the above mentioned break/ edge chip) all primary crust. This does show quite a bit of nice soft thumb-printing as well. A nice display piece and probably the cheapest (per gram anyway) fall available right now.
977 gram complete individual – 125mm x 60mm x 50mm - $1500

GEBEL KAMIL, Egypt. Ni-rich Ataxite. found 2008. Tkw = about 1600 kilograms.
Like the Gao above, this is the biggest piece of this meteorite I have had. And, like above, it came from the same collector (who, obviously, liked big display pieces). This is a shrapnel fragment, as all pieces of this meteorite in collector's hands have been. It certainly looks to have been a surface found piece as it is pretty much all a nice gently wind-polished chocolate brown (buried pieces tended to have a more yellow/ brown rusty color/ texture). An article in a recent Meteoritics & Planetary Sciences on some ancient iron beads (that were made out of meteorite) mentioned this meteorite. It seems that the Egyptians started referencing the sky in their words for iron around 5000 years ago. The Gebel meteorite seems to have fallen right around this time. It even seems that debris from the impact covered an old trade road. So it is highly likely that this fall was witnessed somehow by the people of the area and may have been what clued them in to the idea that iron came from the sky.
2529g natural shrapnel fragment – 150mm x 110mm x 40mm - $1800

KUNASHAK, Russia: (L6). Fell June 11, 1949. Tkw = 200+ kilograms.
I have only a few pieces of this fall available. I may break up the larger slice if need but I am hesitant to do so as it does show some nice breccia texture to it. The 3 small pieces in a bag would be ideal for the somewhat micro collector (or resale to such collectors). The slices are polished on one side. The larger piece, unfortunately, is a bit rough on its back side. It was obviously cut with a saw that was to small (took two tries from different directions to cut it) and is wedged, but still shows nice breccia on that side as well.
a) 1.5 grams 3 fragments/ cut fragments in a bag - $25
b) 7.6 gram slice – 28mm x 22mm x 4mm - $140
c) 48.8 gram slice – 60mm x 60mm x ~4mm - $500

LOS CERRILLOS, Argentina: (H4), S2, W2. Found 2006. Tkw = 1kilogram.
To me, this looks a lot more weathered than a W2 grade, but then I am not looking at it as a thin section. Regardless, with only a kilo known, there is very little of this material available to collectors (I have only these four pieces) so don't hesitate too long if you want to add this new name to your collection. Three of these pieces are slices but I do have one end piece (about 40 grams).
a) 4.7 gram slice – 45mm x 13mm x 3mm - $28
b) 8.2 gram slice – 35mm x 20mm x 3mm - $49 SOLD
c) 39.5 gram end piece – 45mm x 35mm x 5mm - $200
d) 42.0 gram complete slice – 60mm x 50mm x 5mm - $230

NWA (5489): (Howardite). Found 2008. Tkw = 288 grams.
This is super fresh and every piece has at least some fresh black crust on the edges. The largest is a wonderful end piece (that I will likely put in my collection if I don't sell it here) that shows contraction cracks and some flow lines/ ridges in the crust (which covers 80% or so of the back side). This has an appearance very similar to Kapoeta and, frankly, is just as fresh. However, this meteorite, being a "lowly NWA" is priced at a small fraction of the price.
a) 3.1 gram slice – 18mm x 13mm x 4mm - $60
b) 7.4 gram slice – 30mm x 30mm x 3mm - $140
c) 12.4 gram slice – 35mm x 35mm x 4mm - $240
d) 25.0 gram cut fragment – 40mm x 33mm x 8mm - $500
e) 91.3 gram end piece/ main mass – 68mm x 50mm x 13mm - $2000