[brmeteorites_list] List 131 - more small stuff
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 131
December 19, 2012
Dear Collectors,
I am sorry that this is going out late. I discovered yesterday morning that my one remaining Guinea pig (CQ) is ill and required an emergency trip to the vet (which is a bit over an hour drive each way for the vet that is up to date on Guinea pig care). We did not get back from this appointment until a bit after 4PM yesterday - too late to send this out. We have had CQ for a bit over 7½ years now (she is close to 8 as she was 5 months or so old when we got her). Unfortunately, the doctor's news clearly says we will not have her for much longer. She had cancer a couple years ago and did great after surgery. Unfortunately it has returned with a vengeance and is inoperable this time. So, making her comfortable (pain medication, lots of treats and attention) is all we can do for her at this point. (I have put some photos of her in the group photos section for anyone that wants to see what this old girl looks like).
I still hope to do an "end of year get it out of inventory" offering. However, I have not had much time to do the work to find what I want to go away (for simplifying bookwork purposes anyway). I have been buried with what has turned out to be a far bigger project than I had anticipated. I got all the general components to set up a solar hot water heating system (mostly for the water heater for nice "free" hot showers but also for actually heating the house if there is left over heat from that primary job). This is a really BIG project to put together it turns out. It has it all; plumbing, mechanical, and electric. For added excitement, much of the work has to be done in small closets, under the house in crawl spaces and on the roof. I had been really putting myself into this hoping to get the bulk of the work done while we had nice weather. I am maybe 2/3 done with this. However, we have bad weather rapidly moving in which might put an end to this project (the out doors and semi-outdoors parts anyway) for awhile (it is snowing heavily at this moment so I probably won't be taking packages to the post office today either). Then I may get to my inventory work and see if I can make a list out of it.
Anyway, here is another little selection from the old research collection that the last list came out of.
ATARRA, India: (L4), black. Fell December 23, 1920. Tkw = 1280 grams.
Now I know there cannot be much of this out. Only three stones were recovered with a total of a bit over a kilo known. This is certainly the first time I have seen a piece (al be it small) of this fall.
.065 grams fragments in capsule - $60
AZTEC, New Mexico: (L6). Fell February 1, 1938. Tkw = 2.83kg.
I know that there is very little of this one out there. I went through the brutal process of doing a trade with the Field Museum many years ago to get a small bit of this for a collector who lives in the area of the fall. This is the first time I have seen any of this since.
.05 gram fragment – 5mm x 5mm x 1.5mm - $30
.065 grams of fragments in capsule - $35
BATH, South Dakota: (H4), breccia. Fell August 29, 1892. Tkw = 21kg.
I know I had a piece of Bath Furnace in my micro collection years ago but don't think I had any of this one.
.025g fragment – 2.5mm x 2mm x 2mm - $10
ELENOVKA, Ukraine: (L5). Fell October 17, 1951. Tkw = 54.64kg.
These (I have a couple of them) are powder, crumbs and fragments in a capsule. The fragments portion are generally sized from 1mm up to 5mm in size.
.5 grams of fragments, crumbs, powder in capsule - $20
KELLY, Colorado: (LL4), breccia. Found 1937. Tkw = 44.3kg.
Kelly was my first LL4 I ever had and sold. It was also VERY popular as pretty much no collectors had an LL4 at that point (they are quite a bit rarer than LL3s). I seem to recall that back then (certainly over 20 years and likely closer to 24 years ago) the stuff brought the princely sum of around $20/g.
1.9 gram thick slice – 12mm x 9mm x 10mm - $60
KUTTIPPURAM, India: (L6). Fell April 6, 1914. Tkw = 45.4kg.
A shower of stones fell over 4 villages. The largest piece was around 71 pounds. Not a lot of this has gotten out as there are around 38kg of this fall reported held in Calcutta (meaning only around 7kg for the rest of us, museums included).
.025 grams, 3 fragments in capsule - $10
.04 gram fragment – 4mm x 3mm x 2mm - $15
KYUSHU, Japan: (L6) veined. Fell October 26, 1886. Tkw = 45+kg.
I have had piece of this in the past but it has been awhile. Not many meteorites from Japan are available to collectors (small target, a lot relatively difficult hunting terrain and such).
.015 grams, 2 fragments in capsule - $10
.03 gram fragment – 4mm x 2mm x 2mm - $15
SEARSMONT, Maine: (H5). Fell May 21, 1871. Tkw = about 900grams.
It was reported that a 12 pound (around 5.5kg) stone fell but only about 2 pounds was preserved. I have had a piece of this in the long ago past. I think this is the only meteorite from Maine I have ever had.
.06 grams fragments and dust in capsule - $20
WESTON, Connecticut: (H4). Fell December 14, 1807. Tkw = 149.7kg.
Apparently, this was a much larger fall than I had thought. However, it is noted that "very little was preserved". According to the Catalog of Meteorites, there is a bit under 4.3kg of this meteorite reported in major museum collections. I know that this has been one of the really high dollar historic rarities I've seen occasionally lately. But I guess though this is indeed important as it is the US's first witnessed fall.
.035 grams fragments in capsule - $15
.18 gram fragment – 6mm x 4mm x 4mm - $60
WOOLGORONG, Australia: (L6). Fell December 20, 1960. Tkw = 36.3 kg.
This, like Millbillillie, was recovered some time after the fall. In the case of this stone, it was not until July of 1961 that 80 pounds of fragemnts were recovered.
Dust in capsule - $5
About .01g (about 2mm square) of fragments in capsule - $10
ZAVID, Bosnia-Herzegovina: (L6) breccia. Fell August 1, 1897. Tkw = 92.78kg.
The fireball from this fall traveled from the SE to the NW. Four stones were recovered. It is likely that more pieces fell in to the river Drina.
.045 gram fragment – 4mm x 3mm x 2mm - $10
Tuesday 25 December 2012
Tuesday 4 December 2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 130 - small rare bits 1
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 130
December 4, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Here is a small assortment of some interesting things I received recently from an old research collection. There are many things in this collection that I have not cataloged fully yet. Regardless, I am already seeing a bunch of names of things (all really small, good for the micro collectors) that I have never seen or had before. The next couple offerings will likely be things pulled from this collection lot as I catalog them (though I may run an "inventory clearance" offering next time. I am currently working on that grueling task. I have not come across a lot of last one or two pieces of an item things yet – the things I'd probably want to get rid of so I don't have to do all the inventory work on them for taxes – but that may change).
ABEE, Canada: (EH4) impact melt breccia. Fell June 9, 1952. Tkw = 107kg.
This is a nice cut fragment that has a nice 12mm x 7mm patch of fusion crust. This had a thin coating of light rust on it so I hand sanded it to show fresh metal and breccia texture on its cut faces (and stunk up the kitchen in the process. One of the interesting features of most enstatite chondrites is that they stink of sulfur really bad when sanded).
1.95 gram cut fragment – 20mm x 7mm x 7mm - $120
ALLENDE, Mexico: (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
This is a "black inclusion" that was originally set aside to be thin-sectioned (and it may very well have had a layer cut off for this purpose). This, texturally, looks very much like a CM2 meteorite but the color is a bit lighter. I left this in the bottle I got it in which has a label that says " Allende black inclusion, a piece for thin section 1/24/74, 1.122g.
1.12 gram slice – 10mm x 8mm x 4mm - $15
AOUELLOUL GLASS, Mauritania.
A 250 meter diameter crater was discovered with a small amount of highly silicious glass around it. This glass contains iron and nickel, showing its impact origin. It is estimated that the impact occurred about 3.3 million years ago. These are 3 small pieces that have been sawn for research work and are in the plastic tube I received them in.
1.3 grams 3 pieces - $7
ARRIBA, Colorado: (L5), brecciated. Found 1936. Tkw = 31.1kg.
These piece are both "raw cut" unsanded. I left them as I got them. However, the back side of both is really nice in that they have very nice obvious weathered fusion crust (not badly weathered either. The crust is a nice mix of dark gray and chocolate brown). These are really nice little end pieces and likely very rare as such.
2.2 gram end piece – 18mm x 9mm x 6mm - $20
NEW CONCORD, Ohio: (L6) veined. Fell May 1, 1860. Tkw = 226.8kg.
Here is a US historic classic. I have not had any of this in quite awhile. I remember something about a rumor that a horse was supposedly killed in the fall of this meteorite but don't recall where I heard that.
2.3 gram slice – 17mm x 9mm x 4mm - $45
3.4 gram slice – 22mm x 9mm x 5mm - $65
5.0 gram slice – 40mm x 9mm x 4mm - $95
ORGUIEL, France: (CI1). Fell May 14, 1864. Tkw = 10.5+kg.
I sold a fair amount of this material when I offered it on a list recently. This piece is special in that it is still in the little plastic disk container that a researcher received decades ago (likely directly from the Paris Museum). I have priced this pretty much at the same price per gram (possibly even a hair less) that I had my "regular" material listed at.
.37grams of crumbs in Paris museum container - $700
PANTAR, Philippines: (H5). Fell June 16, 1938. Tkw = 10.3kg (?)
I put a question mark on the total known. This 10.3kg is what Meteorites A to Z reports but I could only come up with about 1600 grams in museum collections (according to the Catalog of Meteorites). Even the Meteoritical Bulletin has the total on this as 2.1kg. It was reported that 16 fairly small stones were recovered from this fall. However, a note was made that "thousands the size of corn and rice grains fell on roofs in the area". Perhaps a big load of these were recently recovered, but I certainly have not ever seen any of this fall available before.
.02 grams fragments/ crumbs in capsule - $15
.03 grams fragments in a capsule - $25
.11g fragment – 7mm x 5mm x 2mm - $80
WALTERS, Oklahoma: (L6). Fell July 28, 1946. Tkw = 28kg.
This is a meteorite that looks like there are only a couple kilos that has made it out of research collections, according to the numbers in the Catalog of Meteorites. These aren't much, but maybe all that is available of this fall at this point in time.
.20 gram fragments in capsule - $20
.7 gram cut fragment – 15mm x 5mm x 3mm - $50
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 130
December 4, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Here is a small assortment of some interesting things I received recently from an old research collection. There are many things in this collection that I have not cataloged fully yet. Regardless, I am already seeing a bunch of names of things (all really small, good for the micro collectors) that I have never seen or had before. The next couple offerings will likely be things pulled from this collection lot as I catalog them (though I may run an "inventory clearance" offering next time. I am currently working on that grueling task. I have not come across a lot of last one or two pieces of an item things yet – the things I'd probably want to get rid of so I don't have to do all the inventory work on them for taxes – but that may change).
ABEE, Canada: (EH4) impact melt breccia. Fell June 9, 1952. Tkw = 107kg.
This is a nice cut fragment that has a nice 12mm x 7mm patch of fusion crust. This had a thin coating of light rust on it so I hand sanded it to show fresh metal and breccia texture on its cut faces (and stunk up the kitchen in the process. One of the interesting features of most enstatite chondrites is that they stink of sulfur really bad when sanded).
1.95 gram cut fragment – 20mm x 7mm x 7mm - $120
ALLENDE, Mexico: (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
This is a "black inclusion" that was originally set aside to be thin-sectioned (and it may very well have had a layer cut off for this purpose). This, texturally, looks very much like a CM2 meteorite but the color is a bit lighter. I left this in the bottle I got it in which has a label that says " Allende black inclusion, a piece for thin section 1/24/74, 1.122g.
1.12 gram slice – 10mm x 8mm x 4mm - $15
AOUELLOUL GLASS, Mauritania.
A 250 meter diameter crater was discovered with a small amount of highly silicious glass around it. This glass contains iron and nickel, showing its impact origin. It is estimated that the impact occurred about 3.3 million years ago. These are 3 small pieces that have been sawn for research work and are in the plastic tube I received them in.
1.3 grams 3 pieces - $7
ARRIBA, Colorado: (L5), brecciated. Found 1936. Tkw = 31.1kg.
These piece are both "raw cut" unsanded. I left them as I got them. However, the back side of both is really nice in that they have very nice obvious weathered fusion crust (not badly weathered either. The crust is a nice mix of dark gray and chocolate brown). These are really nice little end pieces and likely very rare as such.
2.2 gram end piece – 18mm x 9mm x 6mm - $20
NEW CONCORD, Ohio: (L6) veined. Fell May 1, 1860. Tkw = 226.8kg.
Here is a US historic classic. I have not had any of this in quite awhile. I remember something about a rumor that a horse was supposedly killed in the fall of this meteorite but don't recall where I heard that.
2.3 gram slice – 17mm x 9mm x 4mm - $45
3.4 gram slice – 22mm x 9mm x 5mm - $65
5.0 gram slice – 40mm x 9mm x 4mm - $95
ORGUIEL, France: (CI1). Fell May 14, 1864. Tkw = 10.5+kg.
I sold a fair amount of this material when I offered it on a list recently. This piece is special in that it is still in the little plastic disk container that a researcher received decades ago (likely directly from the Paris Museum). I have priced this pretty much at the same price per gram (possibly even a hair less) that I had my "regular" material listed at.
.37grams of crumbs in Paris museum container - $700
PANTAR, Philippines: (H5). Fell June 16, 1938. Tkw = 10.3kg (?)
I put a question mark on the total known. This 10.3kg is what Meteorites A to Z reports but I could only come up with about 1600 grams in museum collections (according to the Catalog of Meteorites). Even the Meteoritical Bulletin has the total on this as 2.1kg. It was reported that 16 fairly small stones were recovered from this fall. However, a note was made that "thousands the size of corn and rice grains fell on roofs in the area". Perhaps a big load of these were recently recovered, but I certainly have not ever seen any of this fall available before.
.02 grams fragments/ crumbs in capsule - $15
.03 grams fragments in a capsule - $25
.11g fragment – 7mm x 5mm x 2mm - $80
WALTERS, Oklahoma: (L6). Fell July 28, 1946. Tkw = 28kg.
This is a meteorite that looks like there are only a couple kilos that has made it out of research collections, according to the numbers in the Catalog of Meteorites. These aren't much, but maybe all that is available of this fall at this point in time.
.20 gram fragments in capsule - $20
.7 gram cut fragment – 15mm x 5mm x 3mm - $50
Tuesday 20 November 2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites -List 129 - some interesting larger items
Blaine Reed Meteorites -List 129 - some interesting larger items
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 129
November 20, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Here are a few items I have picked up at the past couple shows. These things are more tektites and miscellaneous special or large pieces than meteorites this time. I listed the meteorites first, but there are certainly interesting things below.
A holiday season note, request for help or opinion:
I had hoped to pull together some kind of gift certificate system by now. Frankly, the holiday season is generally one of my slowest. This is because collectors are using their money to buy gifts for family and friends (not meteorites) and family and friends don't often buy meteorites for their collector friends (can't blame them – they usually have no idea what those collectors want or need so the don't risk buying any meteorite specimens). I thought that a gift certificate program on my part might help break up that log jam (then family and friends of collectors could simply buy a gift certificate from me which the collector could then use to turn into meteorites/ tektites and such from me later). Unfortunately, in our highly over regulated supposedly free economy, it seems that I may not legally be able to do this. It seems that the government (both state and Fed) has gotten into regulating gift certificates, balances on them and collecting taxes fees and such. I do understand that I certainly should pay taxes on any sale of gift certificates I make BUT it seems that they want additional taxes and demand that I turn over unused balances to them after a certain amount of time. I don't know the specific rules (and whether or not they would fully apply to what tiny amount of business I would do in these things) but I was informed by another dealer who looked into it a few years ago to simply DON'T DO IT. If anyone out there has a better understanding of the rules on these things PLEASE CONTACT ME. Maybe I can find a loop-hole that will allow me to offer gift certificates in the future. I suppose I should first ask though if anyone out there thinks that having such available would be of any use or help to them (no sense getting all worked up over legal details if really no one wants the things to begin with).
SEYMCHAN, Russia: (Pallasite).
Here is a really nice bookend of true pallasite (loaded with olivine). Its profile is square (all cut edges) but the back is natural exterior (so its kind of an end piece). This stands up nicely on its own. I have this priced a bit below what it would likely cost to replace it at this point (probably around $1500 or so from what I saw at the Denver show). I'd rather try to sell this nice piece as it is before possibly sending it off for cutting.
368.9 gram book end – 72mm x 70mm x 20mm - $1250
TAZA – NWA (859) : Plessitic octahedrite (real one).
I got this piece in Denver incase I needed to have a decent piece to hand around (or run an XRF on in front of) the jury at last month's trial. I did not end up needing to do either (but I guess there is indeed still a chance the clown will be awarded a new trial though). I managed to pick a nice oriented `bullet' shaped individual. It has a nice rounded nose and slowly tapers out from there. There are some thumbprints on and near the back of the piece. This is a mottled rust brown as I have left this just as I got it (which looks to be pretty much as it was likely found).
245.2 gram oriented individual as found – 60mm x 30mm x 25mm - $650
ANORTHOSITE: Isle of Harris, Scotland, UK
Here is an end piece of terrestrial anorthosite. Like its Lunar counterpart, this is nearly white in color (though there is a greenish tinge on one side of the cut and polished face). This is the cheap way to see what the material that originally made up much of the luinar highlands looked like before impact mixing and such. The paper that comes with this gives the location as Lingerbay, Isle of Harris, Scotland, UK.
58.4 gram cut fragment – 65mm x 30mm x 20mm - $20
AUSTRALITE: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Here is, by far, the largest Australite I have ever had. I can't recall having any in the past 26 years that were much bigger than 12 grams or so. This is a positively huge one in comparison to all I have had in the past. This is a complete individual as found. It is not real exciting in shape or features – a slightly squashed egg shaped piece with fairly shallow grooving and flow lines. The real special feature of this piece is indeed its truly rare (and unchipped no less) size.
43.8 gram individual – 45mm x 30mm x 20mm - $400
JOSEPHENITE, Oregon: Terrestrial Fe/Ni alloy.
This is a little individual nugget of this interesting and quite rare material. It is believed that this may have been brought up from the outer core with a very deep origin magma plume. These are often found as placer nuggets in streams after they have weathered out of the rock they were originally trapped in. This is a typical rounded little nugget.
2.6 gram nugget – 12mm x 10mm x 5mm - $15
TEKTITE KIT:
Here is a neat item I got from Al Mitterling at the Denver show. It is a Riker box with 5 different tektites/ impact glasses. The pieces in this are no slouches for size or quality either. I suppose the Australite could be a bit bigger (see above) but it certainly is the size of what is usually available. The items (and weights) are: Australite – 2.1g, Darwin Glass – 8.7g, Indochinite – 12.5g, Libyan Desert Glass – 14.6g, Moldavite – 8.6g.
Tektite kit in Riker - $120
WABAR IMPACTITE/ CRATER GLASS, Saudi Arabia.
I have only seen small bits of impact glass from this crater over the years. Usually, I see the small impact pearls (little half centimeter or so glass beads) that the owners generally want waaaay too much money for (last I was offered they wanted $300 to $500 for each pearl). There is a lot of those pearls and impactites out there in the desert but VERY few people have ever been allowed out to the crater (and are often monitored when they are there). I have heard that large sand dunes are moving into the area and are about to (if they have not already) cover the area for what will likely be a long time. Anyway, what I have here is truly a HUGE piece of crater glass/ impactite from this crater. I picked it up in Socorro a couple weeks ago. It came from a retired geologist who did work in Saudi Arabia many years ago. I am not certain exactly how to classify this chunk. It has the highly frothy nature (and metal blebs) of an impactite but has kind of a lava like flow structure to it as well. NOTE – I certainly did test this – it indeed has plenty of nickel in it so it certainly is NOT just a piece of lava. I also am not sure how to price this, perhaps its an item that is unique enough that it would be better in an auction. I decided to price (per gram wise) about the same that my other impactites are. However, this has a lot of grams to it so it still works out to be a substantial chunk of money.
209gram natural fragment as found – 140mm x 75mm x 45mm - $400
THIN-SECTION:
Here is, unfortunately, a broken thin-section I have had sitting on my desk for years now (it got broken in shipping, not from sitting on my desk surprisingly). It was from my NWA (5779) LL5 breccia that finally got reported recently (hence my ability to now get rid of this thing). It is broken into 5 pieces but there are certainly a couple big enough to still enjoy under a scope.
Broken t-section - $5
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 129
November 20, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Here are a few items I have picked up at the past couple shows. These things are more tektites and miscellaneous special or large pieces than meteorites this time. I listed the meteorites first, but there are certainly interesting things below.
A holiday season note, request for help or opinion:
I had hoped to pull together some kind of gift certificate system by now. Frankly, the holiday season is generally one of my slowest. This is because collectors are using their money to buy gifts for family and friends (not meteorites) and family and friends don't often buy meteorites for their collector friends (can't blame them – they usually have no idea what those collectors want or need so the don't risk buying any meteorite specimens). I thought that a gift certificate program on my part might help break up that log jam (then family and friends of collectors could simply buy a gift certificate from me which the collector could then use to turn into meteorites/ tektites and such from me later). Unfortunately, in our highly over regulated supposedly free economy, it seems that I may not legally be able to do this. It seems that the government (both state and Fed) has gotten into regulating gift certificates, balances on them and collecting taxes fees and such. I do understand that I certainly should pay taxes on any sale of gift certificates I make BUT it seems that they want additional taxes and demand that I turn over unused balances to them after a certain amount of time. I don't know the specific rules (and whether or not they would fully apply to what tiny amount of business I would do in these things) but I was informed by another dealer who looked into it a few years ago to simply DON'T DO IT. If anyone out there has a better understanding of the rules on these things PLEASE CONTACT ME. Maybe I can find a loop-hole that will allow me to offer gift certificates in the future. I suppose I should first ask though if anyone out there thinks that having such available would be of any use or help to them (no sense getting all worked up over legal details if really no one wants the things to begin with).
SEYMCHAN, Russia: (Pallasite).
Here is a really nice bookend of true pallasite (loaded with olivine). Its profile is square (all cut edges) but the back is natural exterior (so its kind of an end piece). This stands up nicely on its own. I have this priced a bit below what it would likely cost to replace it at this point (probably around $1500 or so from what I saw at the Denver show). I'd rather try to sell this nice piece as it is before possibly sending it off for cutting.
368.9 gram book end – 72mm x 70mm x 20mm - $1250
TAZA – NWA (859) : Plessitic octahedrite (real one).
I got this piece in Denver incase I needed to have a decent piece to hand around (or run an XRF on in front of) the jury at last month's trial. I did not end up needing to do either (but I guess there is indeed still a chance the clown will be awarded a new trial though). I managed to pick a nice oriented `bullet' shaped individual. It has a nice rounded nose and slowly tapers out from there. There are some thumbprints on and near the back of the piece. This is a mottled rust brown as I have left this just as I got it (which looks to be pretty much as it was likely found).
245.2 gram oriented individual as found – 60mm x 30mm x 25mm - $650
ANORTHOSITE: Isle of Harris, Scotland, UK
Here is an end piece of terrestrial anorthosite. Like its Lunar counterpart, this is nearly white in color (though there is a greenish tinge on one side of the cut and polished face). This is the cheap way to see what the material that originally made up much of the luinar highlands looked like before impact mixing and such. The paper that comes with this gives the location as Lingerbay, Isle of Harris, Scotland, UK.
58.4 gram cut fragment – 65mm x 30mm x 20mm - $20
AUSTRALITE: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Here is, by far, the largest Australite I have ever had. I can't recall having any in the past 26 years that were much bigger than 12 grams or so. This is a positively huge one in comparison to all I have had in the past. This is a complete individual as found. It is not real exciting in shape or features – a slightly squashed egg shaped piece with fairly shallow grooving and flow lines. The real special feature of this piece is indeed its truly rare (and unchipped no less) size.
43.8 gram individual – 45mm x 30mm x 20mm - $400
JOSEPHENITE, Oregon: Terrestrial Fe/Ni alloy.
This is a little individual nugget of this interesting and quite rare material. It is believed that this may have been brought up from the outer core with a very deep origin magma plume. These are often found as placer nuggets in streams after they have weathered out of the rock they were originally trapped in. This is a typical rounded little nugget.
2.6 gram nugget – 12mm x 10mm x 5mm - $15
TEKTITE KIT:
Here is a neat item I got from Al Mitterling at the Denver show. It is a Riker box with 5 different tektites/ impact glasses. The pieces in this are no slouches for size or quality either. I suppose the Australite could be a bit bigger (see above) but it certainly is the size of what is usually available. The items (and weights) are: Australite – 2.1g, Darwin Glass – 8.7g, Indochinite – 12.5g, Libyan Desert Glass – 14.6g, Moldavite – 8.6g.
Tektite kit in Riker - $120
WABAR IMPACTITE/ CRATER GLASS, Saudi Arabia.
I have only seen small bits of impact glass from this crater over the years. Usually, I see the small impact pearls (little half centimeter or so glass beads) that the owners generally want waaaay too much money for (last I was offered they wanted $300 to $500 for each pearl). There is a lot of those pearls and impactites out there in the desert but VERY few people have ever been allowed out to the crater (and are often monitored when they are there). I have heard that large sand dunes are moving into the area and are about to (if they have not already) cover the area for what will likely be a long time. Anyway, what I have here is truly a HUGE piece of crater glass/ impactite from this crater. I picked it up in Socorro a couple weeks ago. It came from a retired geologist who did work in Saudi Arabia many years ago. I am not certain exactly how to classify this chunk. It has the highly frothy nature (and metal blebs) of an impactite but has kind of a lava like flow structure to it as well. NOTE – I certainly did test this – it indeed has plenty of nickel in it so it certainly is NOT just a piece of lava. I also am not sure how to price this, perhaps its an item that is unique enough that it would be better in an auction. I decided to price (per gram wise) about the same that my other impactites are. However, this has a lot of grams to it so it still works out to be a substantial chunk of money.
209gram natural fragment as found – 140mm x 75mm x 45mm - $400
THIN-SECTION:
Here is, unfortunately, a broken thin-section I have had sitting on my desk for years now (it got broken in shipping, not from sitting on my desk surprisingly). It was from my NWA (5779) LL5 breccia that finally got reported recently (hence my ability to now get rid of this thing). It is broken into 5 pieces but there are certainly a couple big enough to still enjoy under a scope.
Broken t-section - $5
Wednesday 3 October 2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 127 - after Denver stuff
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 127 - after Denver stuff
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 127
October 2, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Here are a few things I got at the show a couple weeks ago. This is a bit rushed as I am also trying to pull together a mailed listing right now as well (as well as madly working on as much of a solar hot water system as I can possibly accomplish on my own while the weather is still nice). I did not pick up a whole lot of material at the show (that's what happens when you are stuck running a room I guess). The bits I got here are, on review of the list, typically on the more expensive side (not necessarily in price per gram, just over all cost). I usually try to have more material on the affordable side, but simply did not come up with much this time.
LAFAYETTE, Indiana: Nakhlite. Found before 1930. Tkw = 800 grams.
Here is a small crumb (about 1mm x 1.5mm) of this super famous and rare meteorite. This fantastically oriented meteorite was found in the Purdue University geological specimen collection. Less than 200 grams was cut from this beautiful stone for research and distribution to collections. As such, pieces of this are rare in private hands. This piece came from a specimen that came from the Jim Schwade collection. It is in a gem case mounted in a riker box that has a picture of the main mass and basic info (type, find date) inside. Nice little display. I have had these in the past and they have always sold rapidly.
Small (roughly 1mm x 1.5mm crumb in display box - $75
LANCE, France: Carbonaceous (CO3.5). Fell July 23, 1872. Tkw = 51.7 kilograms.
Here are a few fragments (one "large" one and a few small) in a capsule in a Paris Museum container (30mm diameter, 10mm thick plastic disk). I had a few other similar contained specimens, but sold them before Ann Black helped determine that they were Paris museum pieces. I am surprised that this one didn't sell at the show, but then it is not cheap and I had the display case absolutely packed with stuff (easy to get lost in the clutter). Anyway, this is my last such "Paris" piece.
.30 grams fragments in capsule in Paris museum container - $100
LOST CITY, Oklahoma: Fell January 3, 1970. Tkw = 17 kilograms.
These are small blocks of this super famous and important meteorite mounted in Riker boxes with a photograph of the fireball and information card. This was the first meteorite in the US to be recovered from photographs of the meteor trail. Three stations of the Prairie Network of sky cameras picked up the trail and allowed a calculation of the likely fall point. 6 days later, a search team discovered the first specimen, a 9.8 kilo mass, by nearly driving over it as it sat in a road. It took over 10 years of operation of this sky monitoring systems operation before this meteorite was recovered from those efforts. As such, this has been considered to be one of the "most expensive meteorites of all times" (not that it is much "cheaper" now).
a) .57 gram block – 8mm x 7mm x 3mm - $125
b) 1.10 gram block – 10mm x 6mm x 5mm - $240
NWA (unstudied): Diogenite. Found before September 2011. Tkw = 40g.
I got this little beauty at the show last year. BUT I got a bigger one for my collection this year. This is a fresh almost complete individual. It has crust (black with contraction cracks though a bit shiny from wind polishing) covering probably 90% of the specimen. It has one end broken (about 16mm x 15mm) that clearly shows the Bilanga like diogenite internal texture (though a bit hidden by adhering dirt – I have not attempted to clean this in any way). I am selling this for what I paid for it. This is actually cheaper than its current replacement cost, from what I saw at the show this year. From the prices I saw, any Diogenite (and eucrite or howardite for that matter) was priced at $12 to $15/g and above (unstudied even!). I know the official reports are that we don't have inflation here in the US, but those economists sure aren't looking into the meteorite world for their numbers.
39.76 gram individual – 42mm x 25mm x 20mm - $400
NWA (unstudied): Thin sections.
Here are some neat little "kits" a friend of mine created. He has been working on making his own thin-sections the past few years and has gotten quite good at it. He made these from a selection of miscellaneous pieces he pulled out of one of my miscellaneous NWA trays a couple years ago. He thinks that these are all an L6 with high shock level (he has found ringwoodite in all of these). These "kits" each contain the thin-section, the end piece it was made from and a couple photos of the slide through a microscope (in regular and crossed polarizers light). Neat items! I am trying to get him to put similar kits together with know items in the future as well.
Thin section with end piece it was made from and photos - $50
NWA (2968): Ungrouped achondrite (Dunite). Found 2004. Tkw = 265 grams.
This was one of those super rare/ super important things that I pretty much sold all of before I even had a chance to publicly list it (not a bad thing to have happen on my end). Some months ago, I had someone looking for a piece of this and I could not locate one at all. I thought I had set aside some. Recently while going through my "micro" box collection I discovered that I had two pieces hiding there, one being this huge (for this stuff) piece. (Now I wish I could find the 20 odd grams of NWA (5782) acapulcoite/ lodranite breccia I thought I set aside hiding there as well). Anyway, this piece was among the very largest that I got. I am not going to cut this as this material has the nasty habit of breaking apart into small little blocks when cutting or polishing (and in nature apparently, as there really were no big pieces). I have heard rumor of this stuff "going for" hundreds of dollars per gram. I am keeping this piece (partly due to its size) much more reasonable for now.
9.65 gram natural fragment – 18mm x 15mm x 12mm - $1000
ZAGAMI, Nigeria: Mars rock (Shergottite). Fell October 3, 1962. Tkw = 18.1 kilograms.
Happy birthday to this fall tomorrow! This fell 50 years ago. This specimen is certainly the signature piece of this offering. In fact, this comes with 2 signatures! This is a Haag collection piece and he has personally signed both the certificate of authenticity and the information card that comes with it! And, as a "birthday special" this is also priced below (per gram wise) pretty much ANY Mars rock that I am aware of right now! This is a great chance to get an "historic" specimen (Robert does not sell or sign much these days) at an affordable (per gram wise anyway) price. I have a picture of this piece ready to go out to interested collectors.
16.8 gram part slice – 70mm x 30mm x 4mm - $7000
Sunday 2 September 2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 126. Denver show SEP2012 info and some meteorites
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 126. Denver show SEP2012 info and some meteorites
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 126
September 2, 2012
Dear Collectors,
I am sending this out a couple days early as I will soon (in just a few days!) be heading off to the Denver show. I am leaving a couple days early as I have some other things I need to do (and people to visit) before I get stuck in my room for the remainder of the trip. I will be gone from the morning of September 8th until September 18th.
I will be in my usual show location; Room 224 however the hotel has changed names. It is now Ramada Plaza - Denver Central. It is still 4849 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80216 for those of you that might be using a GPS to navigate to the show. I will try to have my room open by noon on Tuesday (the 11th). I say try as I have been warned that my room may have been "remodeled" as part of the hotel name change. I really fear these kinds of things. It takes a lot of time and effort to set up a semi-functional room/ display around the (in general) over clutter of furniture that hotels like to stuff the rooms with. So, this year (after 25 years of knowing what I had to do), I may be back at zero in setting up this year (I just pray my tables will still fit). Anyway, I will be in the room from 10am to around 10pm each day for the rest of the show. I will likely go to the COMETS party/ auction on Friday at 6 or 7pm and I will start packing things down around 5pm on Sunday (pretty much my usual schedule).
BASSIKOUNOU, Mauritania: (H5). Fell October 16, 2006. Tkw = around 80 kilograms.
Now here is a specimen that literally looks like it was picked up right after the fall. This is an absolutely pristine complete individual. This does not have a lot in the way of flow lines but it does have a general conical shape to it ("E-Bay oriented" perhaps). The previous owner of this beauty paid over $600 for this years ago. Pieces this nice are certainly hard to come by these days.
103.4 gram complete individual – 45mm x 40mm x 27mm - $470
CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).
Here is a nice lightly brushed individual. It has a cow paddy shape (round and squat) BUT with nice sculpting to it (larger scale thumb-printing and nice thin ridges around the edge). Not exceptional but nice for a popular meteorite that has become very hard to come by lately (my usual sources say "no more available" these days).
1141.9 gram lightly brushed individual – 90mm x 80mm x 30mm - $740
DALGETY DOWNS, Australia: (L4). Found 1941. Tkw = 473 kilograms.
I got this material a couple years ago while in Socorro and completely forgot about it. This is interesting looking stuff. It shows a good amount of metal and sulfides in a brown and gray mottled matrix. I have some other pieces of Dalgety Downs stashed away somewhere but these look to be a bit fresher (I think these were taken from a large piece and my other pieces were all smaller fragments and subject to slightly greater weathering internally).
1) Slices:
a) 18.2 grams – 47mm x 25mm x 5mm - $45
b) 30.0 grams – 55mm x 30mm x 5mm - $75
2) End piece:
a) 82.6 grams – 60mm x 30mm x 20mm - $190
IMILAC,Chile: (Pallasite). Found 1922.
These are some of the small angular "shrapnel" individuals that have sandy yellow to pinkish orange crystals in their deep pockets. I think I got these from Steve Arnold many years ago (well before he hit the road of fame anyway). I had these on my "regular" catalog for years but recently pulled them as I had so very few remaining (and Seymchan slices make for a better representative pallasite anyway).
1) Shrapnel "individuals" as found:
a) 3.7 grams – 13mm x 13mm x 8mm - $19
b) 5.1 grams – 18mm x 15mm x 6mm - $26
c) 6.7 grams – 20mm x 11mm x 10mm - $34
JUANCHENGE, China: (H5). Fell February 15, 1997. Tkw = 100+ kilograms.
These are some nice individuals that were likely fairly early recoveries (only some minor browning in areas on some). All of these are basically complete individuals though there are some minor chips on some and others have areas of light secondary crust (that may superficially have the appearance of a break but closer inspection does reveal the presence o fusion crust). I got these (along with the one that I offered earlier that had a label) in a trade from Alan Lang. Unfortunately, I got only one label and that went with the earlier listed piece.
1) Individuals:
a) 5.7 grams – 16mm x 15mm x 11mm - $26
b) 7.1 grams – 17mm x 15mm x 12mm - $32
c) 9.7 grams – 20mm x 15mm x 12mm - $44
d) 12.5 grams – 23mm x 20mm x 11mm - $56
e) 14.1 grams – 28mm x 22mm x 12mm - $63
NWA (801): Carbonaceous chondrite (CR2). Found 2000. Tkw = 5+ kilograms.
This is a complete slice of a fragment. This has quite a bit of metal, both round blebs or metal chondrules and as armoring around many of the chondrules. This also has an interesting large chondrule/ inclusion (roughly 5mm x 6mm). This is in a plastic display box and comes with a Farmer label.
4.4 gram slice – 30mm x 20mm x 3mm - $100
NWA (6454); L-melt rock. Found before February 2005. Tkw = 300 grams.
I only got a small amount of this strange material. This has a light gray interior with some black shock lines and lots of round to elongate metal/ triolite blebs. Very interesting and different. I recall seeing something like this at a Denver show years ago being sold as an achondrite for around $100/g (unfortunately, I cannot recall the NWA number on that material.
1) Slices:
a) 1.9 grams – 22mm x 16mm x 2mm - $40
b) 4.1 grams – 31mm x 27mm x 2mm - $82
c) 9.8 grams – 38mm x 31mm x 3mm - $180 – complete slice.
COPROLITE: Fossilized dung.
I had someone ask me to pick up a piece of this for them at one of the shows (perhaps a year and a half ago, don't remember) but then failed to take it when I got home (I am really starting to think that I will NOT be taking special requests anymore. The track record is something like 30%,I think, of those special requests being honored/ accepted when I do find the asked for material). Anyway, this is a nice piece that looks pretty much like a piece of dung should. I don't think this is really dinosaur doo (those tend to be more nondescript chunks) but nice (and certainly NOT fresh) none the less.
127.1 grams – 60mm x 35mm x 30mm - $25
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 126
September 2, 2012
Dear Collectors,
I am sending this out a couple days early as I will soon (in just a few days!) be heading off to the Denver show. I am leaving a couple days early as I have some other things I need to do (and people to visit) before I get stuck in my room for the remainder of the trip. I will be gone from the morning of September 8th until September 18th.
I will be in my usual show location; Room 224 however the hotel has changed names. It is now Ramada Plaza - Denver Central. It is still 4849 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80216 for those of you that might be using a GPS to navigate to the show. I will try to have my room open by noon on Tuesday (the 11th). I say try as I have been warned that my room may have been "remodeled" as part of the hotel name change. I really fear these kinds of things. It takes a lot of time and effort to set up a semi-functional room/ display around the (in general) over clutter of furniture that hotels like to stuff the rooms with. So, this year (after 25 years of knowing what I had to do), I may be back at zero in setting up this year (I just pray my tables will still fit). Anyway, I will be in the room from 10am to around 10pm each day for the rest of the show. I will likely go to the COMETS party/ auction on Friday at 6 or 7pm and I will start packing things down around 5pm on Sunday (pretty much my usual schedule).
BASSIKOUNOU, Mauritania: (H5). Fell October 16, 2006. Tkw = around 80 kilograms.
Now here is a specimen that literally looks like it was picked up right after the fall. This is an absolutely pristine complete individual. This does not have a lot in the way of flow lines but it does have a general conical shape to it ("E-Bay oriented" perhaps). The previous owner of this beauty paid over $600 for this years ago. Pieces this nice are certainly hard to come by these days.
103.4 gram complete individual – 45mm x 40mm x 27mm - $470
CANYON DIABLO, Arizona: Coarse octahedrite (IAB).
Here is a nice lightly brushed individual. It has a cow paddy shape (round and squat) BUT with nice sculpting to it (larger scale thumb-printing and nice thin ridges around the edge). Not exceptional but nice for a popular meteorite that has become very hard to come by lately (my usual sources say "no more available" these days).
1141.9 gram lightly brushed individual – 90mm x 80mm x 30mm - $740
DALGETY DOWNS, Australia: (L4). Found 1941. Tkw = 473 kilograms.
I got this material a couple years ago while in Socorro and completely forgot about it. This is interesting looking stuff. It shows a good amount of metal and sulfides in a brown and gray mottled matrix. I have some other pieces of Dalgety Downs stashed away somewhere but these look to be a bit fresher (I think these were taken from a large piece and my other pieces were all smaller fragments and subject to slightly greater weathering internally).
1) Slices:
a) 18.2 grams – 47mm x 25mm x 5mm - $45
b) 30.0 grams – 55mm x 30mm x 5mm - $75
2) End piece:
a) 82.6 grams – 60mm x 30mm x 20mm - $190
IMILAC,Chile: (Pallasite). Found 1922.
These are some of the small angular "shrapnel" individuals that have sandy yellow to pinkish orange crystals in their deep pockets. I think I got these from Steve Arnold many years ago (well before he hit the road of fame anyway). I had these on my "regular" catalog for years but recently pulled them as I had so very few remaining (and Seymchan slices make for a better representative pallasite anyway).
1) Shrapnel "individuals" as found:
a) 3.7 grams – 13mm x 13mm x 8mm - $19
b) 5.1 grams – 18mm x 15mm x 6mm - $26
c) 6.7 grams – 20mm x 11mm x 10mm - $34
JUANCHENGE, China: (H5). Fell February 15, 1997. Tkw = 100+ kilograms.
These are some nice individuals that were likely fairly early recoveries (only some minor browning in areas on some). All of these are basically complete individuals though there are some minor chips on some and others have areas of light secondary crust (that may superficially have the appearance of a break but closer inspection does reveal the presence o fusion crust). I got these (along with the one that I offered earlier that had a label) in a trade from Alan Lang. Unfortunately, I got only one label and that went with the earlier listed piece.
1) Individuals:
a) 5.7 grams – 16mm x 15mm x 11mm - $26
b) 7.1 grams – 17mm x 15mm x 12mm - $32
c) 9.7 grams – 20mm x 15mm x 12mm - $44
d) 12.5 grams – 23mm x 20mm x 11mm - $56
e) 14.1 grams – 28mm x 22mm x 12mm - $63
NWA (801): Carbonaceous chondrite (CR2). Found 2000. Tkw = 5+ kilograms.
This is a complete slice of a fragment. This has quite a bit of metal, both round blebs or metal chondrules and as armoring around many of the chondrules. This also has an interesting large chondrule/ inclusion (roughly 5mm x 6mm). This is in a plastic display box and comes with a Farmer label.
4.4 gram slice – 30mm x 20mm x 3mm - $100
NWA (6454); L-melt rock. Found before February 2005. Tkw = 300 grams.
I only got a small amount of this strange material. This has a light gray interior with some black shock lines and lots of round to elongate metal/ triolite blebs. Very interesting and different. I recall seeing something like this at a Denver show years ago being sold as an achondrite for around $100/g (unfortunately, I cannot recall the NWA number on that material.
1) Slices:
a) 1.9 grams – 22mm x 16mm x 2mm - $40
b) 4.1 grams – 31mm x 27mm x 2mm - $82
c) 9.8 grams – 38mm x 31mm x 3mm - $180 – complete slice.
COPROLITE: Fossilized dung.
I had someone ask me to pick up a piece of this for them at one of the shows (perhaps a year and a half ago, don't remember) but then failed to take it when I got home (I am really starting to think that I will NOT be taking special requests anymore. The track record is something like 30%,I think, of those special requests being honored/ accepted when I do find the asked for material). Anyway, this is a nice piece that looks pretty much like a piece of dung should. I don't think this is really dinosaur doo (those tend to be more nondescript chunks) but nice (and certainly NOT fresh) none the less.
127.1 grams – 60mm x 35mm x 30mm - $25
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites- List 125 - Couple irons, etc. 14AUG2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites- List 125 - Couple irons, etc. 14AUG2012
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 125
August 14, 2012
Dear Collectors,
This was supposed to go out last Tuesday but I was not back from the show yet. I thought about waiting until next Tuesday (the properly scheduled time for an offering) but I have an up coming issue next week that meant I would likely have little time to take and ship orders (and may even interfere with my preparations for Denver). That issue is I get to go to trial against the clown that has been selling fake meteorites supposedly found in Montrose (about 20 miles South of me) the past few years. Thankfully, I a will be testifying on the side of "The People of Colorado" in all of this (after all, it was my purchasing a specimen he was publicly selling and proving it was fake is what started all of this). I know the "defendant" thinks he is going to get me arrested at all of this for "fraud and conspiracy" for saying his material is not real (at least the pieces I have been able to run some analysis work on – can't make any absolute claims on the others). I certainly doubt he will have much luck in that area but this whole thing may get ugly and take considerable time regardless. I apologize to the many of you out there that received rather frightening demands/ invitations/ "electronic subpoenas" from this guy the past few weeks. I have not been able to get the Mesa County DA's office to respond to requests concerning the legitimacy of these "subpoenas" (and have received a bit of heat from some of you that have received them). However, I have heard from officials a bit higher up the food chain (the State Attorney General's office) that those of you that have received these have no obligation to act on them. You must be formally served, as I was, with an official court subpoena to be required to show for the trial. (Darn, and I thought I'd host a big trial/ meteorite people cook out/ party here with all the people that "had to show up" for this circus).
Anyway, I just got in a couple nice irons, a few small scraps from an old research collection and had some things that were sitting around for awhile so here is a (very) brief offering.
ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
Here are 3 fresh fragments that, unfortunately, have no crust. These were out of an old research collection.
6.7 grams 3 fragments - $45
GEBEL KAMIL, Egypt: Ni-rich ataxite (ungrouped). Found 2008.
This is a nice piece of the material that was found when a fresh crater (complete with rays) was found on satellite photos. Studies show that debris from the impact cover an ancient road/ trail. It appears the this 148 foot impact happened around 5000 years ago – or after the trail was in place (so the impact was likely witnessed by ancient people). This is a nice, as found, natural shrapnel fragment with a nice chocolate brown color.
220.9 gram natural individual – 80mm x 40mm x 20mm - $200
GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
This is a nice as found natural small individual. It is elongate/ pointed piece and could almost be used as a spear point. This has a nice natural orange/ brown color and a nice sculpted shape.
108.6 gram natural individual – 90mm x 30mm x 15mm - $110
JULESBURG, Colorado: (L3.6). Found 1983. Tkw = 60+ kilograms.
This was the "famous" meteorite that was found discarded at the local dump. I did some field work in the area and did manage to get a hold of a roughly 1kg individual many years ago. This is a rectangular slice that was obviously cut from one of the large slices from the mass found at the dump (Glenn Huss – American Meteorite Lab got that one. This does not have a Huss number on it though). One edge (about 35mm long) has a nice thumb-print textured brown crust. The interior shows some obvious chondrules (lots more on careful inspection) and plenty of metal in a mottled dark gray/ jade green matrix.
58.3 gram slice – 80mm x 35mm x 6mm - $580
LEEDEY, Oklahoma: (L6). Fell November 25, 1943. Tkw = 51.5 kilograms.
Here is a nice slice that was set aside by a collector who recently decided to put their limited funds elsewhere. This has one long edge of black crust (about 95mm long worth). The interior is nearly white with some patches of light brown staining (about as fresh as this comes).
82.4 gram slice – 80mm x 72mm x 5mm - $825
RICHARDTON, North Dakota: (H5), veined. Fell June 30, 1918. Tkw = 90.9 kilograms.
This is a small fresh fragment from the same source (old research collection) as the Allende above. Also like the Allende pieces above, this has no crust.
1.1 gram fragment – 10mm x 9mm x 8mm - $20
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 125
August 14, 2012
Dear Collectors,
This was supposed to go out last Tuesday but I was not back from the show yet. I thought about waiting until next Tuesday (the properly scheduled time for an offering) but I have an up coming issue next week that meant I would likely have little time to take and ship orders (and may even interfere with my preparations for Denver). That issue is I get to go to trial against the clown that has been selling fake meteorites supposedly found in Montrose (about 20 miles South of me) the past few years. Thankfully, I a will be testifying on the side of "The People of Colorado" in all of this (after all, it was my purchasing a specimen he was publicly selling and proving it was fake is what started all of this). I know the "defendant" thinks he is going to get me arrested at all of this for "fraud and conspiracy" for saying his material is not real (at least the pieces I have been able to run some analysis work on – can't make any absolute claims on the others). I certainly doubt he will have much luck in that area but this whole thing may get ugly and take considerable time regardless. I apologize to the many of you out there that received rather frightening demands/ invitations/ "electronic subpoenas" from this guy the past few weeks. I have not been able to get the Mesa County DA's office to respond to requests concerning the legitimacy of these "subpoenas" (and have received a bit of heat from some of you that have received them). However, I have heard from officials a bit higher up the food chain (the State Attorney General's office) that those of you that have received these have no obligation to act on them. You must be formally served, as I was, with an official court subpoena to be required to show for the trial. (Darn, and I thought I'd host a big trial/ meteorite people cook out/ party here with all the people that "had to show up" for this circus).
Anyway, I just got in a couple nice irons, a few small scraps from an old research collection and had some things that were sitting around for awhile so here is a (very) brief offering.
ALLENDE, Mexico: Carbonaceous (CV3.2). Fell February 8, 1969.
Here are 3 fresh fragments that, unfortunately, have no crust. These were out of an old research collection.
6.7 grams 3 fragments - $45
GEBEL KAMIL, Egypt: Ni-rich ataxite (ungrouped). Found 2008.
This is a nice piece of the material that was found when a fresh crater (complete with rays) was found on satellite photos. Studies show that debris from the impact cover an ancient road/ trail. It appears the this 148 foot impact happened around 5000 years ago – or after the trail was in place (so the impact was likely witnessed by ancient people). This is a nice, as found, natural shrapnel fragment with a nice chocolate brown color.
220.9 gram natural individual – 80mm x 40mm x 20mm - $200
GIBEON, Namibia: Fine octahedrite (IVA). Found 1836.
This is a nice as found natural small individual. It is elongate/ pointed piece and could almost be used as a spear point. This has a nice natural orange/ brown color and a nice sculpted shape.
108.6 gram natural individual – 90mm x 30mm x 15mm - $110
JULESBURG, Colorado: (L3.6). Found 1983. Tkw = 60+ kilograms.
This was the "famous" meteorite that was found discarded at the local dump. I did some field work in the area and did manage to get a hold of a roughly 1kg individual many years ago. This is a rectangular slice that was obviously cut from one of the large slices from the mass found at the dump (Glenn Huss – American Meteorite Lab got that one. This does not have a Huss number on it though). One edge (about 35mm long) has a nice thumb-print textured brown crust. The interior shows some obvious chondrules (lots more on careful inspection) and plenty of metal in a mottled dark gray/ jade green matrix.
58.3 gram slice – 80mm x 35mm x 6mm - $580
LEEDEY, Oklahoma: (L6). Fell November 25, 1943. Tkw = 51.5 kilograms.
Here is a nice slice that was set aside by a collector who recently decided to put their limited funds elsewhere. This has one long edge of black crust (about 95mm long worth). The interior is nearly white with some patches of light brown staining (about as fresh as this comes).
82.4 gram slice – 80mm x 72mm x 5mm - $825
RICHARDTON, North Dakota: (H5), veined. Fell June 30, 1918. Tkw = 90.9 kilograms.
This is a small fresh fragment from the same source (old research collection) as the Allende above. Also like the Allende pieces above, this has no crust.
1.1 gram fragment – 10mm x 9mm x 8mm - $20
Monday 16 July 2012
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 124 - set of Buchwalds, Berthoud, etc.
Blaine Reed Meteorites - List 124 - set of Buchwalds, Berthoud, etc.
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 124
July 16, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Normally, this offering should go out tomorrow. I have to leave town yet again Thursday morning, so I thought it a good idea to get this out as early as possible (I had not finished preparing the Belmont pieces until yesterday afternoon). I'll likely be back in full operation on Tuesday the 24th.
I will also be out of town August 2nd through the 7th or 8th for the Creede Mineral show. This runs the 3rd, 4th and 5th (the first Friday, Saturday, Sunday of August). This will also delay my first (only?) August listing as well (assuming I pull out enough new stuff to have one anyway).
BELMONT, Wisconsin: (H6), veined. Found 1958. Tkw = 25.3 kilograms.
This was a single stone ploughed up by a farmer. It has been around for quite awhile, but I think these may be the first pieces of this meteorite I have ever had to sell. This is nice material with lots of metal in a pleasant mottled medium to dark brown matrix. These specimens were cut from a piece that was traded out of UNM and come with a UNM Institute of Meteoritics label.
1) Slices:
a) 5.0 grams – 18mm x 15mm x 5mm - $75
b) 8.6 grams – 30mm x 19mm x 4mm - $129
c) 15.1 grams – 35mm x 27mm x 5mm - $225 – one edge crusted
d) 33.4 grams – 50mm x 36mm x 5mm - $500 – one edge crusted/ museum numbered.
e) 82.6 grams – 85mm x 46mm x 5mm - $1200 – 50% of edge crusted.
BERTHOUD, Colorado: (Eucrite), monomict breccia. Fell October 5, 2004. Tkw = 960 grams.
This was one of those "kind of snuck in" falls. There were no reports of a huge fire- ball, sonic booms and such. A simple whistling noise and a thud was observed by a couple (Andy and Megan Clifford) just after they left their house. Dust kicked up in a near by horse pen led them to the spot where this small stone was found buried just below the surface. I remember seeing the news reports on this and thought I would never see/ have any of this one. I recall they were "accepting offers" with a starting price of $250,000 – or more per gram for the whole chunk than what I am asking on nice finished thin slices. This is very fresh (obviously) and fairly fragile stuff. Accordingly, each of these pieces in a membrane box. These came from UNM and I have "official" UNM Institute of Meteoritics labels to fill out and send with each one of these.
1) Slices:
a) .43 grams – 10mm x 10mm x 2mm - $110
b) .76 grams – 15mm x 11mm x 2mm - $190
c) 1.25 grams – 20mm x 13mm x 2mm - $310
d) 3.15 grams – 25mm x 24mm x 2mm - $780 – has 15mm of crust along one edge.
e) 4.70 grams – 40mm x 27mm x 2mm - $1150
DIMMITT (?), Texas: (H3.7). Found 1942. Tkw = 200+ kilograms.
I put the (?) on this one because I strongly suspect that a couple of these (the two smaller specimens listed) really look to be too fresh and L-type for the real Dimmitt. I personally think that they are more likely pieces of Tulia (B) – an L chondrite that I have had a few pieces of over the years. However, these do have Monig/ TCU labels made up for them as Dimmitt (I likely will make a note on the back that this may not be the case) as they did come out of the bin of Dimmitts in that collection. The area has a number of overlapping strewn fields and the stones often look pretty much identical from the outside, so these issues will likely continue to crop up from time to time as more pieces of "Dimmitt" (or "Tulia" for that matter) get cut in the future (not that there are that many left to cut though). The large piece certainly looks like real Dimmitt to me and has an interesting 1cm sized inclusion (xenolith or melt pocket perhaps).
1) Slices:
a) 3.6 grams – 30mm x 10mm x 4mm - $7
b) 5.2 grams – 25mm x 14mm x 4mm - $10
c) 23.4 grams – 45mm x 25mm x 6mm - $40
NWA (2932): (Mesosiderite). Found 2005. Tkw = 15+ kilograms.
This (like the NWA 4656 and Oum Dreyga below) was set aside for a collector and forgotten about (by them as well as me). This really nice mesosiderite had large metal nodules in it that contained only tiny flecks of silicates uniformly scattered throughout them. Some of these nodules were found loose on their own like meteorite marbles. Their shape and composition made them very difficult to cut and polish (hard to hold onto and got very hot to the point of giving me a couple blisters). This is one of the few I did manage to cut though. I quickly sold out of these when I offered them some years ago. Here is my last one!
26.0 gram end piece – 25mm x 22mm x 12mm - $125
NWA (4656): (H4). Found before February 2006. Tkw = 5 kilograms.
This is a piece I had set aside for a long time for a collector that never came back for it (and I had forgotten about it myself). I think this is my last small piece of this fairly interesting stuff (I think I still have a few hundred gram sized full slice set aside). This is quite fresh and showed strange dark greenish/ gray inclusions on the stone's exterior. When cut, these inclusions are not as distinct (this slice has a couple). They look a bit darker and a bit richer in metal than the surrounding material (which is a medium brown) but they don't leap out a bunch visually as the rest of the stone is very metal rich as well.
18.2 gram slice – 39mm x 38mm x 5mm - $30
NWA (4857): Martian (Shergottite). Found before August 2007. Tkw = about 1kg.
This is another piece of what was the commonly available Martian material a few years ago. We were all thrilled to be able to finally get complete little Mars rocks for our collections (even if they were a bit wind polished. Remember – Tissint had not happened yet). This is a particularly special one though. I don't remember who I got it from, but glad I did (show trade or purchase I believe). This is a nice ORIENTED individual. It has the classic dome shaped nose and flat back. The crust is wind polished on this but in better condition than many pieces of this material. There are some flow lines visible on the parts of the dome (nose) side and a roll-over ridge around the edge of the back. These is a roughly 4 or 5mm corner chipped off of this (an old break – possibly from the fall) but is otherwise complete (and as such, more complete than the vast majority of the specimens from this find).
1.28 gram oriented individual – 12mm x 12mm x 6mm - $1000
OUM DREYGA, Western Sahara: (H3-5). Fell October 16, 2003. Tkw = 17+ kilograms.
This is what we originally sold and traded as `Amgala" before a name was officially attached to it. I have not had much of this recently and wouldn't even have this one if it weren't another one of the "set aside for a collector and forgotten" specimens like a couple above. Actually, these were all set aside in the same place for the same person. I re-discovered them while raking the pit (cleaning my office) and the collector was no longer interested in them (not surprising as they wouldn't have been forgotten if they had enough interest to ask for them later after setting them aside with me). Anyway, this is a fresh individual. It looks like a ½ stone but it is indeed complete. Looking at the "broken" face with a lens it is interesting to see that the very highest points on the face have little blebs of fusion crust perched on them (kind of neat, actually). This stone shows at least three distinct different levels of crusting!
30.7 gram individual – 36mm x 28mm x 15mm - $110
HANDBOOK OF IRON METEORITES:
This is a full set (including outer box) of this famous and very rare trio of books by Vagn F. Buchwald. I remember discussing this book set with folks at ASU many years ago. I recall that VERY few sets were printed (something along the lines of 100 sets or so) and fewer yet were actually distributed (oh how I wish I could have been hiding by the dumpster when the "leftovers" were finally disposed of). Anyway, this set is very fresh and has been very lightly used. I priced that at a level that Mike Jensen (someone who actually specializes in meteorite related books and has a clue to their value) says it should be snatched up in short order.
Complete 3 book set and outer case - $1700
Blaine Reed
P.O. Box 1141
Delta, CO 81416
Ph/fax (970) 874-1487
…………………………………………………………………LIST 124
July 16, 2012
Dear Collectors,
Normally, this offering should go out tomorrow. I have to leave town yet again Thursday morning, so I thought it a good idea to get this out as early as possible (I had not finished preparing the Belmont pieces until yesterday afternoon). I'll likely be back in full operation on Tuesday the 24th.
I will also be out of town August 2nd through the 7th or 8th for the Creede Mineral show. This runs the 3rd, 4th and 5th (the first Friday, Saturday, Sunday of August). This will also delay my first (only?) August listing as well (assuming I pull out enough new stuff to have one anyway).
BELMONT, Wisconsin: (H6), veined. Found 1958. Tkw = 25.3 kilograms.
This was a single stone ploughed up by a farmer. It has been around for quite awhile, but I think these may be the first pieces of this meteorite I have ever had to sell. This is nice material with lots of metal in a pleasant mottled medium to dark brown matrix. These specimens were cut from a piece that was traded out of UNM and come with a UNM Institute of Meteoritics label.
1) Slices:
a) 5.0 grams – 18mm x 15mm x 5mm - $75
b) 8.6 grams – 30mm x 19mm x 4mm - $129
c) 15.1 grams – 35mm x 27mm x 5mm - $225 – one edge crusted
d) 33.4 grams – 50mm x 36mm x 5mm - $500 – one edge crusted/ museum numbered.
e) 82.6 grams – 85mm x 46mm x 5mm - $1200 – 50% of edge crusted.
BERTHOUD, Colorado: (Eucrite), monomict breccia. Fell October 5, 2004. Tkw = 960 grams.
This was one of those "kind of snuck in" falls. There were no reports of a huge fire- ball, sonic booms and such. A simple whistling noise and a thud was observed by a couple (Andy and Megan Clifford) just after they left their house. Dust kicked up in a near by horse pen led them to the spot where this small stone was found buried just below the surface. I remember seeing the news reports on this and thought I would never see/ have any of this one. I recall they were "accepting offers" with a starting price of $250,000 – or more per gram for the whole chunk than what I am asking on nice finished thin slices. This is very fresh (obviously) and fairly fragile stuff. Accordingly, each of these pieces in a membrane box. These came from UNM and I have "official" UNM Institute of Meteoritics labels to fill out and send with each one of these.
1) Slices:
a) .43 grams – 10mm x 10mm x 2mm - $110
b) .76 grams – 15mm x 11mm x 2mm - $190
c) 1.25 grams – 20mm x 13mm x 2mm - $310
d) 3.15 grams – 25mm x 24mm x 2mm - $780 – has 15mm of crust along one edge.
e) 4.70 grams – 40mm x 27mm x 2mm - $1150
DIMMITT (?), Texas: (H3.7). Found 1942. Tkw = 200+ kilograms.
I put the (?) on this one because I strongly suspect that a couple of these (the two smaller specimens listed) really look to be too fresh and L-type for the real Dimmitt. I personally think that they are more likely pieces of Tulia (B) – an L chondrite that I have had a few pieces of over the years. However, these do have Monig/ TCU labels made up for them as Dimmitt (I likely will make a note on the back that this may not be the case) as they did come out of the bin of Dimmitts in that collection. The area has a number of overlapping strewn fields and the stones often look pretty much identical from the outside, so these issues will likely continue to crop up from time to time as more pieces of "Dimmitt" (or "Tulia" for that matter) get cut in the future (not that there are that many left to cut though). The large piece certainly looks like real Dimmitt to me and has an interesting 1cm sized inclusion (xenolith or melt pocket perhaps).
1) Slices:
a) 3.6 grams – 30mm x 10mm x 4mm - $7
b) 5.2 grams – 25mm x 14mm x 4mm - $10
c) 23.4 grams – 45mm x 25mm x 6mm - $40
NWA (2932): (Mesosiderite). Found 2005. Tkw = 15+ kilograms.
This (like the NWA 4656 and Oum Dreyga below) was set aside for a collector and forgotten about (by them as well as me). This really nice mesosiderite had large metal nodules in it that contained only tiny flecks of silicates uniformly scattered throughout them. Some of these nodules were found loose on their own like meteorite marbles. Their shape and composition made them very difficult to cut and polish (hard to hold onto and got very hot to the point of giving me a couple blisters). This is one of the few I did manage to cut though. I quickly sold out of these when I offered them some years ago. Here is my last one!
26.0 gram end piece – 25mm x 22mm x 12mm - $125
NWA (4656): (H4). Found before February 2006. Tkw = 5 kilograms.
This is a piece I had set aside for a long time for a collector that never came back for it (and I had forgotten about it myself). I think this is my last small piece of this fairly interesting stuff (I think I still have a few hundred gram sized full slice set aside). This is quite fresh and showed strange dark greenish/ gray inclusions on the stone's exterior. When cut, these inclusions are not as distinct (this slice has a couple). They look a bit darker and a bit richer in metal than the surrounding material (which is a medium brown) but they don't leap out a bunch visually as the rest of the stone is very metal rich as well.
18.2 gram slice – 39mm x 38mm x 5mm - $30
NWA (4857): Martian (Shergottite). Found before August 2007. Tkw = about 1kg.
This is another piece of what was the commonly available Martian material a few years ago. We were all thrilled to be able to finally get complete little Mars rocks for our collections (even if they were a bit wind polished. Remember – Tissint had not happened yet). This is a particularly special one though. I don't remember who I got it from, but glad I did (show trade or purchase I believe). This is a nice ORIENTED individual. It has the classic dome shaped nose and flat back. The crust is wind polished on this but in better condition than many pieces of this material. There are some flow lines visible on the parts of the dome (nose) side and a roll-over ridge around the edge of the back. These is a roughly 4 or 5mm corner chipped off of this (an old break – possibly from the fall) but is otherwise complete (and as such, more complete than the vast majority of the specimens from this find).
1.28 gram oriented individual – 12mm x 12mm x 6mm - $1000
OUM DREYGA, Western Sahara: (H3-5). Fell October 16, 2003. Tkw = 17+ kilograms.
This is what we originally sold and traded as `Amgala" before a name was officially attached to it. I have not had much of this recently and wouldn't even have this one if it weren't another one of the "set aside for a collector and forgotten" specimens like a couple above. Actually, these were all set aside in the same place for the same person. I re-discovered them while raking the pit (cleaning my office) and the collector was no longer interested in them (not surprising as they wouldn't have been forgotten if they had enough interest to ask for them later after setting them aside with me). Anyway, this is a fresh individual. It looks like a ½ stone but it is indeed complete. Looking at the "broken" face with a lens it is interesting to see that the very highest points on the face have little blebs of fusion crust perched on them (kind of neat, actually). This stone shows at least three distinct different levels of crusting!
30.7 gram individual – 36mm x 28mm x 15mm - $110
HANDBOOK OF IRON METEORITES:
This is a full set (including outer box) of this famous and very rare trio of books by Vagn F. Buchwald. I remember discussing this book set with folks at ASU many years ago. I recall that VERY few sets were printed (something along the lines of 100 sets or so) and fewer yet were actually distributed (oh how I wish I could have been hiding by the dumpster when the "leftovers" were finally disposed of). Anyway, this set is very fresh and has been very lightly used. I priced that at a level that Mike Jensen (someone who actually specializes in meteorite related books and has a clue to their value) says it should be snatched up in short order.
Complete 3 book set and outer case - $1700
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