Thursday, 6 October 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List 110

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 110

October 4, 2011

Dear Collectors,

Here is another small offering that is actually going out at the proper time for once. A couple of the items here are things I picked up at the show, but most of it is from a collection of impact materials, tektites and a some small meteorite specimens I recently received from a collector "retiring" from collecting. I will probably have special offerings of just Tektites and another of impact items (breccias/ shattercones and such) later, once I get it all organized and cataloged.

I do have one small (?) complication with this listing though – Blake is out of town for a couple days, so I will have to wait until he returns Wednesday night or Thursday mid day to send out pictures of any of this, unfortunately.

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: (Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
This is a natural, as found individual (complete with all of the white caliche that was stuck to it from its 50K years in the ground). This is nothing exceptional, but it is a nice solid piece and comes with an old Excalibur-Cureton Co. label.
100.6 gram individual – 38mm x 30mm x 20mm - $60

NANTAN, China. (Medium octahedrite, IAB). Found 1958.
This is an "oxide" fragment that is actually mostly metal. It is surprisingly solid, and is not bleeding rust product goo at all! Some one let their curiosity get the better of them and hack sawed off an end of this specimen. It does indeed show a fair amount of metal in the interior (around 50% of the cut face). 
93.4 gram fragment with rough cut face – 45mm x 40mm x 20mm - $15

NWA (5549) (?), Silicated iron.
This is a nice sculpted fresh (it does show some small patches of fusion crust yet) individual that was originally brought to me as "Zizz" (I had a customer for a piece of that stuff). Everyone that saw this said that this was actually the "new" silicated iron – NWA (5549). This is definitely a silicated iron. You can easily see zones of silicates (some that are quite large, one is some 40mm x 30mm) on the surface of this thing (and in bright light, some of these zones have a greenish brown almost gemmy color to them). I looked up some pictures of the known NWA (5549), and this does indeed match up perfectly!
1706 gram complete individual – 115mm x 75mm x 65mm - $5500 

WOLF CREEK, Australia. Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1947.
This is a typical (but solid) "shale ball" from this impact crater. I have had a few of these over the years, but they seem to be fairly scarce at this point.
63.8 gram shale ball – 43mm x 30m x 30mm - $65 

DALGETY DOWNS, Australia. (L4). Found 1941. Tkw = 474+ kilograms.
This is a part slice that was purchased from me many years ago. It is roughly square shaped and has one natural edge. This is nice material internally (it does not look like much on the exterior). It has plenty of metal in a mottled brown/ green and light tan matrix. Actually, this stuff looks very much like cut pieces of Gold Basin.
7.7 gram part slice – 20mm x 18mm x 6mm - $15 

FOREST (B), Australia. (L6). Found October 1980. Tkw = 26kilograms.
This is a flat fragment with a hint of a cut are on one side, small, but large enough for me to clearly see that this is an (L6). This certainly does look like the stuff I got from Robert Haag years ago. This piece may have indeed come from him, but an info card was not included with this – just an old copy of the listing for this stone in an older version of the "Catalog of Meteorites".
7.7 gram fragment – 35mm x 25mm x 5mm - $25

GAO, Burkina Faso. (H5). Fell March 5, 1960.
This is another part slice that was purchased from me many years ago. It is nothing real special. It has the typical medium brown coloration that the more recent recoveries of this material showed internally, but it does show lots of metal including a 1mm x 7mm metal vein on one edge.
10.4 gram part slice – 24mm x 23mm x 6mm - $20

HOLBROOK, Arizona. (L/LL6). Fell July 19, 1912.
This is a really nice complete individual as found. It has some minor dirt on spots (so it was likely not picked up right after the fall) but the crust is really fresh and black.
2.38 gram complete individual – 16mm x 11mm x 6mm - $50

JILIN, China. (H5). Fell March 8, 1976. Tkw = 4000+kilograms.
This is a nice square-shaped part slice that is very fresh (a lot of this material that came out fairly recently was quite brown in the interior). This does show minor hints of oxidation, but only in the form of brown spotting. Other than that, this is a nice light gray color.
5.5 gram part slice – 19mm x 16mm x 6mm - $30

MILLBILLILLIE, Australia: (Eucrite). Fell October 1960.
This is a really nice little end piece of the more mushy/ breccia textured portion of this meteorites (this is somewhat rarer than the intertwined crystal laths texture that has the "salt and pepper" look to it). This has full crust coverage on the back. The crust is orange stained, as most of this stuff was, but does show good flow lines and contraction cracks.
1.6 gram end piece – 20mm x 14mm x 4mm - $25

VACA MUERTA, Chile. (Mesosiderite). Found 1861.
This is a nice solid little end piece. It is not as fresh as, say NWA (2932) (boy, I wish I had bought more of that one when it was available. Now the NWA mesos are running $6 to $10/g out of the field!). but it is quite nice for Vaca. This still shows quite a lot of metal.
9.2 gram end piece – 22mm x 20mm x 10mm - $28 

METEORITE WATCH:
This is a beautiful men's wrist- watch that has a gold platted Munionalusta slice for the dial. The etch on this is fantastic! The watch is done in a style similar to a Rolex Presidential, I believe. It has "diamond" highlights at 6, 9 and 12 and the date window at 3. The band is two-tone; gold and stainless. This also comes with a nice jewelry/ display box. A really nice looking watch.
Munionalusta dial men's wrist watch - $350

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites -- List 109 After Denver stuff 28SEP2011

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 109

September 27, 2011

Dear Collectors,

I am back from the show, unpacked and somewhat caught up. I am still very busy with a number of projects (including getting a new mailed offering pulled together), so this offering my end up being a bit shorter then some. This is a mixed lot of material. Some I have had (but forgot), some are consigned and some I picked up at the show.

MUNDRABILLA, Australia: Medium octahedrite (ungrouped). Found 1911.
Here are a few really nice little individuals (all are above average in shape for their size). I got these from a collection back in the summer and forgot I had (probably could have sold them if I had them in Denver). These are natural as found and have a nice brown/orange coloration.
1) Individuals as found:
a) 23.7 grams – 29mm x 18mm x 10mm - $25 – dumbbell shaped.
b) 33.5 grams – 37mm x 20mm x 12mm - $35
c) 85.7 grams – 28mm x 28mm x 27mm - $90 – really nice knobby shape.

CLAXTON, Georgia: (L6). Fell December 10, 1984. Tkw = 1,455grams.
This is the famous one that hit a mailbox. I actually owned the mailbox for a number of years (5 or 6) before someone made me an offer I could not refuse (actually, I needed money for a piece of land, so I was far more receptive to selling the thing than I would normally have been. I would probably still have the thing otherwise. But now I still have the 3 acres in Wyoming that I got with it). These specimens are neatly mounted in a small Riker box with a picture of the smashed mailbox end (with someone holding the complete meteorite over it to show how it hit) and a card (with a photo of the complete mailbox) and info on the meteorite. I have only these two specimens.
1) Slices:
a) .240 grams – 6mm x 6mm x 2mm - $120
b) .576 grams – 11mm x 10mm x 2mm - $290

GAO, Burkina Faso: (H5). Fell March 5, 1960. Tkw = 100+ kilograms.
This is a really nice oriented complete individual. It has a rounded dome on one side (with some hints of flow lines – rare for this fall) and bubbly crust on the backside (which is pointed, not flat though, hiding the fact that this is oriented a bit). This has not been cleaned but is still one o the freshest Gao stones I have had. The crust is mostly dark gray to black (but has some dark chocolate areas and adhering dirt yet).
128.5 gram oriented individual – 50mm x 45mm x 33mm - $250 

GOLD BASIN, Arizona: (L4). Found 1995. Tkw = 170+ kilograms.
I got this large chunk in a trade at the show. It is blocky but it is indeed a complete individual. It shows a lot of both primary and secondary crust as well as a flat 110mm x 75mm slickenside face (late violent shearing break, or a break along an existing shock vein). I have not cleaned this at all, so it has quite a lot of caliche still adhering to it (I don't have proper air-abrasion equipment and I am worried that an acid bath may end up really screwing up this thing). This would probably make a great specimen for cutting into slices (which my indeed happen later if I don't sell it intact here).
1912.2 gram individual – 10mm x 10mm x 60mm - $1600

HYATTVILLE, Wyoming: (L6). Found April 2008. Tkw = 8911grams.
The bulk of this (4.8kg or so) is in a private collection in Canada. I am already running low on what I had of this. These are a couple large samples cut from a flat fragment that I had someone with better (larger) equipment cut for me (he delivered them too me at the show). These are, by far, my largest specimens remaining of this stuff and perfect for the collector that wants larger surface area display pieces.
a) 81.7 gram slice – 115mm x 70mm x 3.5mm - $370
b) 222.2 gram cut fragment – 120mm x 70mm x 10mm - $875 – some crust along edge.

PERRYTON, Texas: (LL6). Found 1975, recognized 1995. Tkw = 2114 grams.
This one escapes me. I was going to comment that this is one of the very lowest total known weight Texas meteorites I have handled since my days of field work in west Texas many years ago. It turns out that this is indeed one of the meteorite I recovered back then! I have no records of offering this on any form of public list (nor do I have any info cards made up for it, indicating that I DID NOT offer this one). I (embarrassingly) do not remember what I did with this one. I obviously sold this thing intact off to someone. This is the first I have seen of this stuff since getting it out of the field and reporting it, so it obviously disappeared down a deep hole somewhere. This is not real impressive stuff to look at, but it is not all that weathered either. It shows quite a lot of fine metal flakes in a mottled brown to nearly black matrix (this looks almost identical to a really nice thumb-printed fully crusted NWA I picked up at the show. I finally gave in and cut a thin corner off as my curiosity over its weak magnetic attraction finally got the best of me). These are all part slices; the largest being nearly a ½ slice with quite nice crust along some 60% of its edge. Please note: I have only 54 grams of this material.
1) Part slices:
a) 1.8 grams – 22mm x 12mm x 2mm - $45
b) 4.2 grams – 22mm x 22mm x 2mm - $100
c) 8.5 grams – 32mm x 31mm x 2mm - $200 – 50% of edge crusted
d) 26.7 grams – 73mm x 47mm x 2mm - $600 – 60+% edge crusted.

LAFAYETTE, Indiana: Martian (Nakhlite). Found before 1931. Tkw = 800grams.
This stone is among the best examples of orientation ever seen. It was cut none the less, but then we would not know it is a Mars rock if it were not. This is likely a witnessed fall as it is very fresh and was reported to have been seen to fall (but the person who gave the stone to Purdue could not be found to confirm this). This is a tiny crumb (about 1.5mm across) in a nice Riker display with a picture of Mars and a picture of the super oriented main mass of this meteorite.
Crumb (1.5mm) in Riker display - $125

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 108 and Denver Show info

Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 108 and Denver Show 2011 info

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 108

September 6, 2011

Dear Collectors,

Here is the info for the Denver show this next week (waaaay to soon, I am just now beginning to pack) and a small offering of Monig specimens (most have Monig Collection labels – I'll make note of those that do or do not in the descriptions).

SHOW INFO:
As usual. I will be in the Holiday Inn "Denver Central" (4849 Bannock St for any of you wanting to use a GPS to find the place). Also as usual, I will be in room 224. I should be set up and have my door open by noon Tuesday (the 13th). I will be open through late afternoon Sunday (the 18th). The days in between I should have my door open by 10am and plan on being open until about 10pm. HOWEVER, I may close early Friday night so I can attend the COMETS auction and festivities, so don't be surprised to find my door shut after 6:30 or so that day.

I will be leaving either Saturday mid day or Sunday morning (leaning towards Sunday as far behind as I am at the moment) and will not be getting back until September 21st (as I will be staying in Denver a couple days after the show to generally goof-off). SO, please don't expect to reach me between the 9th and the 21st. I do apologize that this does not leave a lot of time to look over this small offering. I will do my best to have any orders packed up and ready to ship right up until Friday night though.

PONY CREEK, Texas. (H4). Found 1947. Tkw = 4.6kg.
I had a special request for some of this during the Denver Spring show. I was completely out of the little amount I had of this from earlier so I had to beg for a bit more. I got a nice box containing a hand full more pieces of this material. This is weathered, but still shows lots of metal in a dark (almost black) gray-green matrix. Not a lot of this was cut, so I don't expect to see much of this once these pieces are gone. All of these except the 2 smallest come with a Monig label.
1) Slices:
a) 4.9 grams – 34mm x 15mm x 3mm - $20
b) 6.8 grams – 55mm x 25mm x 2mm - $30
c) 12.1 grams – 35mm x 20mm x 5mm - $48
d) 19.3 grams – 70mm x 35mm x 2mm - $80
e) 29.8 grams – 50mm x 20mm x 6mm - $120
f) 86.5 grams – 90mm x 65mm x 5mm - $325

TSAREV, Russia: (L5). Found 1968. Tkw = 1132kg.
Here are 4 slices of this material (this is all I have, so no replacements are available for sold pieces on this one). This is quite weathered. It does not show any clear metal grains, just spots and veins of magnetite and hematite. I seem to recall that all of the pieces I have seen of this meteorite are like this. This is not a big surprise to me as my XRF showed that there is quite a lot of chlorine hiding in this stuff (7 or 8% I think). All of these pieces come with a Monig Collection label.
1) Slices:
a) 5.1 grams – 19mm x 13mm x 7mm - $20
b) 11.8 grams – 27mm x 19mm x 6mm - $40
c) 17.4 grams – 45mm x 18mm x 6mm - $55
d) 39.0 grams – 52mm x 30mm x 7mm - $120

SOMERVELL COUNTY, Texas: (Pallasite). Found 1919. Tkw = 11.8kg.
Here a few odd pieces of this pallasite that I received along with a bit larger (and nicer) specimen that I specially asked for a friend who wanted a piece of this. These are indeed all odd and not highly prepared. The smallest does resemble somewhat an end piece. The 4.9g piece is a long rough cut slice portion. The largest is actually fairly nice, but it is stuck in a chunk of resin. None of these are particularly nice, but then, very little of this is available in any form. NOTE THOUGH, that I think Ann Black is having some of this material prepared up in slices that are properly polished. So, those of you that want to wait may have a shot at some better pieces. Anther note – none of these specimens came with a label. These were really kind of left over cutting scraps.
a) 3.7 gram end piece – 13mm x 11mm x 7mm - $55
b) 4.9 gram slice – 28mm x 8mm x 6mm - $65
c) about 5g end piece in resin – 22mm x 22mm x 5mm - $70

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List 107 - last of the Florida collection, etc.


Blaine Reed Meteorites List 107 - last of the Florida collection, etc.


Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 107

August 16, 2011

Dear Collectors,

I am back from the Creede show (plus a short trip to the Buena Vista show this past Saturday) and have a lot to catch up on now, so this is going out a bit late. I should be home (aside from a dentist appointment tomorrow and general running into town for the usual stuff) for the next week or so. Not sure I will be able to handle being home for so long. It will be a change. I got new tires on my car a couple weeks ago and already have a couple thousand miles on them!

Any way, this will likely be my last list of the summer (and, finally, the last of the Florida collection material). My next one (time and material permitting) will likely be early September. I will at least make a posting concerning the Denver show around then regardless.

CANYON DIABLO: Arizona. Coarse octahedrite (IAB).
Like the Sikhote below, this is, finally, my last Diablo specimen from the Florida collection. It is a nice piece for its size and has held up very well considering the environment it was in for many years. This shows only minor surface spotting in areas, no scaling.
140.1 gram brushed individual – 40mm x 40mm x 28mm - $75

ETCHED IRON SLICE: Likely Canyon Diablo.
This came in with the collection from Florida some time ago. It was not labeled so I simply set it aside. Now it is time to let it find a home. This is a complete slice that is etched on one side (the back is sanded but not highly polished). I guessed that this is Canyon Diablo mostly based on; a) It has not rusted apart like a Campo likely would in Florida (it shows some minor brown staining but that is all). b) it does not have a lot of inclusions that Odessas usually show and c) it is too coarse a structure for a Toluca. This would be a fine piece for showing people an etched coarse octahedrite, even if we don't have a positive ID on its origin.
84.2 gram complete slice, etched one side – 70mm x 40mm x 5mm - $45

GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA).
This is a nice slice that attests to the stability of most of this material. This has been in Florida for MANY years (looks like a fairly early Haag specimen) and shows only a couple thin "rust" lines. This is a part slice that has on nice long edge of natural exterior (about 60mm long). A good and stable piece.
79.6 gram etched part slice – 50mm x 50mm x 5mm - $110

SIKHOTE-ALIN: (Russia). Coarsest octahedrite. Fell February 12, 1947.
I think that this, finally, is my last piece of this meteorite from the Florida collection. However, this is not the least. This is a shrapnel piece with a particularly nice shape. You can easily see where two layers were coming apart but just managed to stop where they are barely attached – forming a bit of a long natural hole between them. Really nice little piece!
9.9 gram shrapnel fragment – 30mm x 17mm x 12mm - $6

DIMMITT, Texas: (H3.7). Found 1942.
This is a really nice individual of this interesting meteorite. Dimmitt is a regolith breccia that contains fragments of many different kinds of meteorites (LL, carbonaceous, etc.) that impacted the H parent body. This is a particularly nice stone (better than I have had or seen in years). It is an obviously complete stone (no `late breaks" on this one) with nice rounded edges, soft thumb-printing and nice orange brown to chocolate brown crust. This is also a Monig specimen. This has a catalog number (M138.167) put on it by Glenn Huss when he cataloged the collection in the `80s. It also has a black square painted on it where the original Monig number was painted on it, but now mostly missing for some reason. I suspect that it may be that this was originally labeled as a Tulia (these two meteorites have been mixed up, stirred together and confused for decades) and Glenn scrubbed off the original number so as not to confuse this obvious nice Dimmitt with a Tulia. 
714.1 gram complete individual – 100mm x 70mm x 55mm - $900

NWA (2179): (H3). Found 2003. Tkw = 367.2 grams.
This is a nice small slice that does not show much fresh metal, but does a real good job of showing chondrules of many sizes and colors.
1.54 gram slice – 25mm x 13mm x 2mm - $30

TAMDAKHT, Morocco: (H5). Fell December 20, 2008.
This is the stuff that generally is found in fragments, as most of the stones got shattered by hitting rocks on the ground where they fell high in the Atlas Mountains. This "door stop" is no exception. This has a number of crust patches (and a large amount of slickenside surfaces that hint that much of the "late breakage" of this may be atmospheric). One patch has a lot of obvious scraping and adhering dirt and is likely the point of impact for this stone. It is the largest crust patch (roughly 90mm x 90mm) that tells the most interesting story though. This crust patch is very thick (1.5mm to 2mm in some areas) and does show a good amount of bubbles. This is likely the crust that was on the back-side of a large oriented stone, where melted material that flowed off of the front pools up and often gets bubbly in the low-pressure area of the back side of the falling oriented stone (the scuffed up crust on the opposite end supports this view. It is thumb-printed and seems to show flow-lines running the correct direction, though the scuffing hides them a bit). What is even more special is that there is an obvious "mini-meteorite" (about 10mm x 8mm) that has gotten stuck in the thick crust (this is NOT a piece of iron in the large stone that simply did not erode away). This is likely a small stone that was falling with (in front of actually) this chunk that got caught up in the low-pressure zone of this large oriented stone that was overtaking it during the fall and got welded to its back side to preserve the story for us. This, admittedly, is not a real pretty specimen overall but it tells a really neat story and is priced really cheap for a fall.
4284 gram crusted fragment with mini-meteorite – 180mm x 120mm x 90mm - $4000

UNKNOWN STONE: Most likely L4 or LL4.
Here are a few .5cm to 1cm sized fragments of an unlabeled meteorite (along with powder and a good number of loose chondrules) in a plastic vial. I suspect that this is Bjurbole, but have no way to prove it, unfortunately.
Fragments, dust and chondrules in a vial - $2

DHOFAR (026), Oman: (Lunar. Anorthositic melt), Found 2000. Tkw = 148 grams.
This is probably one of the more ugly Lunars known. It is a pretty uniform gray/ green color and almost completely lacking any kind of features, other than a few tiny bright white (likely anorthosite) inclusions. I would never recognize this as a meteorite, let alone a Lunar (however, the XRF sees that it is). This may not be pretty, but it has gotten quite scarce. 
.39 gram slice – 12mm x 10mm x 1mm - $700

TATAHOUINE, Tunisia: (Diogenite). Fell June 27, 1931. Tkw = 13.5kg.
At first glance this looks like one of the usual small fragments but this is much more interesting. This piece actualy has fusion crust! One side has an obvious smooth, thumb-printed look to it (the other faces are the usual sharp, angular surfaces of these pieces). Looking at it with a hand-lens, it becomes readily apparent that there are some patches of shiny black crust on this smoothed surface. So, finally, I have a fragment of this meteorite available that shows a fusion surface!
2.2 gram fragment with fusion crust – 17mm x 13mm x 5mm - $40 

HUCKITTA, Australia: (Pallasite).
This is one of the usual oxide pieces and one that is a bit harder to see the olivine in than some. 
29.3 gram end piece – 40mm x 35mm x 13mm - $38 

IMILAC, Chile: (Pallasite). Found 1822.
This is a shrapnel (impact?) fragment that has had much of one side ground down and highly polished to show the interior. This has a nice interesting shape and the crystals inside are somewhat gemmy (NOT the usual sand-like crystals typically found in these type pieces). A nice little display specimen.
9.8 gram fragment with polished face – 25mm x 18mm x 10mm - $75

MOLDAVITE: Tektite.
This is a nice long (tongue-shaped) individual. It has nice surface features (not a water rounded lump) and no chipping.
12.0 gram complete individual – 40mm x 22mm x 5mm - $70

FULGURITE: Lightning fused sand from the Sahara Desert.
This is a bag containing about 10 small fragments and pieces (around 1cm to 2cm sized, 3g worth) - $2

ROCK OF GIBRALTOR:
This keeps making me think of the old insurance commercial "Get a piece of the rock" where they would show an outline of this famous rock. This was in the Florida collection material. Not a meteorite but probably interesting to some one out there.
138 gram fragment (looks to be limestone) – 60mm x 55mm x 40mm - $5

TRINITITE: Nuclear blast fused sand from the world's first nuclear explosion on July 16, 1945.
This is a nice large piece of this always popular material. This is quite a bit larger than anything I have left in my inventory.
4.1 gram fragment – 23mm x 17mm x 13mm - $20

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List 106 and show info 20JUL2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List 106 and show info 20JUL2011

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 106

July 19, 2011

Note: I just found that I need to be out of the office this afternoon from about 2pm until 4pm or so for an appointment. Sorry for the difficulties that this may cause, but i did not want to wait until after I get back (it would be close to midnight in Europe then)

Dear Collectors,

I have been home only a handful of days over the last month or two. Here, finally, is another small offering. This is likely my last until at least mid to late August as I have a show coming up that will interfere with my next scheduled offering time. This show is the Creede, Colorado show that is held in the community center just north of town (in what appears to be a mine tunnel – neat place to have a mineral show). The show runs 10AM to 5PM August 5th, 6th and 7th. I will be gone August 4th through August 10th, as I hope to try and hike up an over 14,000 ft mountain north of town after the show this year (I never got the chance last year. In fact, I never even got to complete the show. I turned up with chicken pox Friday night and had to pack up and leave town early Saturday morning. I can personally confirm that getting this "childhood" disease as an adult is really rough and dangerous). 

CAMPO DEL CIELO, Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1576.
This is a really nice complete, wire brushed individual. It has a nice thumb-printed texture and has a great "asteroid looking" appearance overall. I have had this one around for quite some time (I think I got it over a year ago in Tucson), but forgot I had it. This is a really solid piece, showing no rust scaling what so ever. The only rust visible are a few tiny spots that are in pockets that the wire brush did not reach when this was originally cleaned. These really nice pieces have come rather hard to get these days, at least at "reasonable" prices.
` 1082.5 gram brushed individual – 105mm x 50mm x 40mm - $270

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). Found 1891.
These are a couple brushed individuals from the Florida collection. These both are nice pieces. They have nice shapes (the large is particularly interesting) and do not show any signs of damage from their visit to Florida.
a) 10.6 gram brushed individual – 25mm x 16mm x 6mm - $10 (I had to XRF this one, as it did not have a label when I got it, but it does match with the other Canyon Diablo specimens I have run).
b) 85.6 gram brushed individual – 40mm x 27mm x 25mm - $50

GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
This is a nice little lot of "jewelry" pieces. These are mostly little triangular roughly 1cm sized etched pieces. These do show (at least some piece do) a bit of surface rust (not surprising, these were not coated and spent time in Florida) that should be easy to remove (Bill Mason's stuff would take care of these in seconds, likely). These would be great or the jewelry maker or someone putting together small meteorite display boxes (who wants to have an etched iron in the mix). There are about 20 pieces in this lot.
41.1 grams small etched jewelry pieces - $40

NANTAN, China. Medium octahedrite (IAB). Found 1958.
This stuff sets the gold standard for rusting (at least most pieces, but I have indeed seen some, even in slices, that is stable), BUT that is not a concern with these pieces. These are already "pre-disastered - already fully rusted (the person that owned these in Florida was probably smart to buy these samples for his Nantan though). This bag of oxide fragments is pretty typical of what I see at many retail rock shops and shows. They have a wire-brushed look to some areas and a dark blue-gray fresh fracture look to the remainder of their surface (as if some one went ahead and broke down a larger, originally brushed piece). A good lot for flea market re-sale or gifts to kids.
67.2 grams (a dozen or so pieces) - $15 

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Coarsest octahedrite (IIAB). Fell February 12, 1947.
These two pieces are more consignments from Florida (yes, I am still working through those and likely will be for quite some time). The shrapnel is really nice. It has a good shape and was not harshly brushed, so it still shows some nice dark brown patina in areas. The "individual" is a bit rough (really just a bit over brushed). But, it does have an oriented shape and does show some flow lines on its front side.
a) 129.1 gram shrapnel piece – 65mm x 45mm x 35mm - $55 (note – the sources for this material were asking $.60/g at the Denver Spring Show and were not willing to discount much for a "bulk sale" the mere 3kg they had! This has gotten very hard to find recently. VERY little is coming out now).
b) 32.6 gram oriented individual – 40mm x 25mm x 11mm - $40 

NWA (1289): (H3.8). Found 2002. Tkw = 288grams.
This, like the NWA (2229) listed below, is another Tucson trade that is still listed as "provisional. This one was listed as being assigned to Greg Hupe, who is more than likely the original source of this nice specimen. I can say that I was able to look up a couple pictures of other pieces of this, and it matches perfectly. This shows lots of chondrules of many sizes and colors as well as larger breccia fragments. Wish I had more of this one (I have only this specimen).
2.37 gram complete slice – 28mm x 22mm x 1mm - $30 

NWA (2229), Rumurutiite (R3.8). Found 2004. 
I got a couple pieces of this in a trade in Tucson (they are both the same size – within .1g anyway). Unfortunately I now find that this meteorite has not been officially reported - still listed as "provisional" and the number assigned to Dean Bessey, who I haven't talked with in a long time, unfortunately). Regardless, I can say that both pieces are end pieces from a small individual and are definitely R – chondrite (I could not absolutely be sure it is 3.8 though by simple visual inspection, but I personally see no reason to doubt that part the classification). 
1.3 gram end piece – 13mm x 11mm x 5mm - $30

ALLENDE, Mexico: carbonaceous chondrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
This would be an ideal piece for thin-sectioning. It is a thick rectangular slice with one edge of fusion crust.
4.8 gram "slice" – 19mm x 14mm x 6mm - $38

DAR AL GANI (476), Libya: Martian basalt (Shergottite). Found 1998. Tkw = 2kg+
Here is a nice little "micro" slice in a gem "box" (one of the actually round plastic containers that you usually see gem stones displayed in). 
.04 gram slice – 5mm x 3mm x 1mm - $40 

SEYMCHAN, Russia: (Pallasite). Found 1967.
This is a nice thin slice with gemmy olivines that transmit light beautifully. This piece is a bit richer on the metal side (probably making up closer to 2/3rds of the area), but the olivine is well distributed, making this an aesthetic piece. A big plus also is that this piece has already been put through a rusting trial (this is another Florida collection consignment) and passed with a perfect score (no rusting on this piece).
15.2 gram thin part slice – 72mm x 35mm x 1mm - $200 

IRGHIZITE: Tektite from Zhamanshin Crater, Russia.
This is a nice bent (U – shaped) individual that has a few (but not many) of the interesting "micro – tektites" adhering to it that originally came from Michael Blood (this is another "Florida collection" consignment). An aesthetic example of this material.
Bent shaped Individual as found – 13mm x 10mm x 3mm - $15

METEOR CRATER SOUVENIR SPOON:
I found this little spoon in an antique store recently. I don't believe that it is really that old (looks quite modern to me). It has the Meteor Crater logo on a 16mm diameter disk at the top end of this small (85mm long0 spoon. 
Small souvenir spoon - $10

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List #105 21JUN2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List #105 21JUN2011

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 105

June 21, 2011

Dear Collectors,

I am finally getting caught up after an endless series of trips and visitors so I am finally getting a chance to put an offering together (a bit late I admit, but the last visitor was here until late this morning). 

This is yet another offering of picked up in Tucson or consigned stuff (mostly consigned stuff actually). 

I do have yet more traveling planned for fairly soon (I will be gone the weekend of July 4th and yet again July 7th through about July 12th), but these should not greatly affect taking and shipping orders from this list. 

HENBURY, Australia: Medium octahedrite (IIIAB). Found 1931.
This is a nice little end piece. The cut and etched face is roughly 25mm x 15mm or so. The remainder is wire brushed and has a nice thumb-printed shape. A nice display piece!
64.5 gram end piece – 30mm x 18mm x 25mm - $100

SIKHOTE-ALIN, Russia: Coarsest octahedrite (IIAB). Fell February 12, 1947.
This is a really nice shaped small shrapnel fragment. It has a fantastic torn shape and a pleasing dark brown color (this was only lightly brushed). This stuff, believe it or not, is getting very hard to come by. There was VERY little available at the Denver spring show and it was priced at or slightly higher than this superior specimen.
9.9 gram lightly brushed shrapnel fragment – 30mm x 15mm x 12mm - $9

NWA 906: (H3.8). Found June 2001. Tkw = 1031 grams.
This is a nice end piece with one edge cut off (kind of a "book end" cut). This has quite a lot of metal in a medium brown matrix, so it is not highly weathered.
4.7 gram cut end piece – 25mm x 16mm x 6mm - $30

NWA 925: (H3.8). Found June 2001. Tkw = 897 grams.
This is distinctly different than the sample above. This is a bit fresher, has a lighter color and a bit of porous texture to it.
4.5 gram slice – 24mm x 20mm x 2mm - $30

PLAINVIEW (a), Texas: (H5) breccia. Found 1917. Tkw = 700+ kilograms.
A 25 pound piece of this meteorite fell into a horse corral in early spring 1903, so this meteorite should probably be called a fall rather than a find (I have had slices of the horse corral specimen and they do indeed match other Plainview slices). This is a nice part slice that has ½ of its edge crusted and the remainder divided between a natural break and a sawn edge.
15.6 gram part slice – 36mm x 26mm x 5mm - $55 

ALLENDE, Mexico: carbonaceous chindrite (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
This is a nice slice that has one edge of crust (remaining edges are breaks or very late stage crust). I am nearly out of this stuff in my inventory so I was glad to get a piece or two in this consignment lot.
4.4 gram slice – 25mm x 23mm x 3mm - $35 

NWA 2663: Carbonaceous chondrite. (CO3.1). Found 2004. Tkw = 580grams.
This is a nice macro specimen in a plastic display box, showing lots of tiny chondrules in a medium to dark brown matrix.
2.0 gram slice – 15mm x 13mm x 3mm - $30

ZAGAMI, Nigeria: Martian (Shergottite). Fell October 3, 1962. Tkw = 18.1 kilograms.
This is a small fragment with a roughly 5mm x 4mm cut face. This does not have any fusion crust that I can see, but it does have a good number of thin black shock lines running through it.
.178 gram fragment with cut face – 6mm x 5mm x 4mm - $160

ESQUEL, Argentina: (Pallasite). Found 1951.
This is a particularly aesthetic little piece. It has a nice arrangement of large gemmy crystals, a couple of which nicely transmit light (and the remainder are interesting in that they act like windows to looking down inside the slice). The edge is nearly ½ natural as well! The only problem I can see (and this is only for some people) is that it is a wedged sample and not uniform thickness (but this is what allows for the diversity of crystal appearances though).
8.1 gram slice – 31mm x 20mm x 4mm - $250

IMILAC, Chile: (Pallasite). Found 1822.
This is a really nice "weathered" fragment – the ones that have the wild shape and sandy olivine crystals that range from yellow to pink in color. I personally feel that these are more likely impact shrapnel fragments, as the bulk of them were found surrounding an impact crater. Regardless, this is a particularly nice example.
13.1 gram fragment – 25mm x 16mm x 12mm - $95

SEYMCHAN, Russia: (pallasite). Found 1967. 
This is a nice rectangular slice with fairly dark but yet gemmy olivines. I sold this piece to the owner a few years ago and have not been able to come up with as nice of material for replacement (I am nearly out of truly pallasitic pieces of this meteorite).
5.9 gram slice – 26mm x 17mm x 3mm - $90 

THIN - SECTIONS:
Unfortunately, I have only these two specimens. The dimensions are the area of actual meteorite material on the slide.

Allende, Mexico: (CV3.2) – 23mm x 18mm - $50

Waltman, Wyoming: (L4) – 22mm x 16mm - $50

Thursday, 2 June 2011

Blaine Reed Meteorites List #104

Blaine Reed Meteorites List #104

Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
………………………………………………………LIST 104

May 31, 2011

Dear Collectors,

This is a mixed list of some things I have bought and others that are consignments. This should be going out next week (first Tuesday of the month), But I would be leaving for a trip the next morning if I waited. I wanted to give at least some chance for all of you to look this over before I head out the door for a week (I will likely be gone the 8th until about the 14th – a bit different than what I posted on my last list, but I had the wrong dates for the watch and clock convention when typed that up). Also though, I will be going on a short overnight trip this Friday through Saturday (unexpected, but "required"), so do try to reach me before Friday if you want anything listed here.

CADDO COUNTY, Oklahoma: ungrouped silicatated iron. Found 1987. Tkw = 18kg.
This is the stuff that many people thought might be a Lodranite when it was first brought out. This piece is mostly metal, with a nice fine etch structure, but does have silicates along 2 sides. 
8.58 gram slice – 31mm x 19mm x 2mm - $130 SOLD!

CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahdrite (IAB).
This is a nice semi-large wire – brushed individual. It as some large deep pockets in it (one is nearly spherical and about 35mm diameter) to give this paper-weight an interesting shape. Not quite an art piece, but quite nice!
1700 gram brushed individual – 100mm x 65mm x 65mm - $850

ODESSA, Texas: Coarse octahedrite (IAB). 
I have not gotten any new pieces of Odessa in a long time (the last batch I thought I was getting turned out to be Deports – the ones on my last offering). These are definitely Odessa and came from two different sources! Both are nice solid pieces with nice surface sculpting (better than the typical Odessa). The large "end piece" (actually closer to an individual with one 75mm x 25mm flat side polished and etched) has a couple particularly deep pockets on it. Both of these are natural, NOT brushed. Very nice pieces, and quite hard to come by these days.
a) 256.6 gram natural individual – 60mm x 50mm x 20mm - $190
b) 1291 gram "end piece" – 120mm x 60mm x 40mm - $900

BENSOUR, Morocco: (LL6). Fell February 10, 2002. Tkw = 45+ kg.
This is a really fresh and nice specimen. It is a "broken individual" but is more than 60% covered in really fresh crust. This also has a small added feature of interest – a scuff mark on part of the crust from this stone hitting something on the ground when it fell.
24.5 gram individual (60% crusted) – 35mm x 25mm x 15mm - $150

BROWNFIELD (1937), Texas: (H 3.8). Found 1937. Tkw = 44kg.
This is a slice that came from me many years ago, and still has the old, mostly still legible label I sent with it that long time ago. This was cut from a 6kg individual I bought from the farmer that ploughed it up in 1994. I thought WOW! 6kg of an H3! This will last a looong time. I sold out of this stuff surprisingly rapidly, and at the same price, I believe, that I sold it for back in 1994.
31.3 gram slice – 50mm x 33mm x 6mm - $235

GHUBARA, Oman: (L5), black, xenolithic. Found 1954. Tkw = 250+ kg.
This is rather interesting stuff. It is fragments of L5 material in an L3 host. This might be best considered an L3 with L5 xenoliths.
18.3 gram slice – 45mm x 43mm x 3mm - $25 

GOLD BASIN, Arizona: (L4). Found 1995. Tkw = 170+ kg.
This is an unpolished slice (actually the back is a lightly ground natural flat surface – the finder probably did this to make sure they had indeed located a meteorite). It has lots of metal and a pleasing mixed almost bluish gray and medium brown matrix (this stuff has always reminded me of Dalgetty Downs).
16.9 gram slice – 31mm x 30mm x 6mm - $20 

NWA (1697): (L5), breccia. Ound 2002. Tkw = 3 kg.
This is really very fresh material. It shows a number of angular fragments (mostly lighter, but there are a couple dark fragments) in a light gray matrix. There is some light brown spotting, but not much.
27.3 grams slice – 40mm x 35mm x 8mm - $30 

PLAINVIEW (1917), Texas: (H5), breccia. Found 191, may have fallen Spring 1903. 
A fireball was seen in the area shortly after dusk in early spring 1903. A 25 pound stone was recovered from a horse corral the next day. This piece was eventually cut and matched perfectly internally and externally with the many Plainview stones discovered in 1917some 10 miles away. This meteorite is a regolith breccia and pieces have been found that contain fragments of many different kinds of meteorites that impacted the H chondrite parent body.
29.8 gram part slice 53mm x 25mm x 7mm - $110

DAR AL GANI (067), Libya: carbonaceous (C03). Found 1995. Tkw = 688 grams.
This is one piece of many that were recovered from a strewn field (I think each stone ended up getting its own number – at least that is how it seemed at the time) so there is obviously a lot more of this stuff than 688grams. Pieces of this were quite common and affordable 15 years ago. They are fairly scarce now. This slice is highly polished on one side, but the chondrules show much clearer on the unpolished side.
4.3 gram complete slice – 23mm x 20mm x 3mm - $50 

NWA (2943), (R3-6). Found 2005. Tkw = 300 grams.
This is a part slice (this has one cut edge) that shows a lot of light colored chondrules in a a medium to dark brown matrix. 
3.7 gram part slice – 20mm x 20mm x 3mm - $50

AGOULT, Morocco: Unbrecciated eucrite. Found 2000. Tkw = 9+ kg.
This is definitely unusual stuff (despite the reported 9+kg known, I have only seen and have handled small pieces such as this). Ut has a drastically different look to other eucrites (I have not heard if this is also from the same parent body as Ibitira – which this closely resembles). This has a fine-grained sugary texture that more closely resembles sand stone rather than a basaltic meteorite. 
3.2 gram fragment – 17mm x 12mm x 9mm - $290