[meteorite-list] UNCUT NWAs (was, "Unclassified NWAs")

From: Michel <Michel_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:42:03 2004
Message-ID: <004c01c0863f$5a405100$59b5fea9_at_nwc.fr>

Rob and list

The problem with slicing a small part of any meteorite is that meteorite are
NOT Homogenous and that you may find big differences in analyses of the same
meteorite. Think of breccias even of some AEUC and certainly others. Then
it will be very difficult to do the pairing between all these meteorites.

Then when you say that there is nobody thinking to do disregarding operation
about meteorites on this list, i have many doubts. We are more than 500
listees according what is said today. A community with a so law "criminal"
percentage ( less than 2 per thousand) is out of common statistitics. Every
slice of population as the same ratio of bad ones. We too.

Just to see how animate the debate is about NWA which may represent a large
percentage of the $$$ in the next show makes me feel that unfortunatly the
NWA problem is not finished.

We only have to behave like we feel we should.

If collectors just stop buying any meteorites for 6 to 9 months and you
will see a large part of the marketers that will change of profession.
Before meteorites was a slow business. today it is almost like Wallstreet.

my two slices.

Michel


----- Message d'origine -----
De : Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_saic.com>
À : <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Envoyé : mercredi 24 janvier 2001 19:56
Objet : [meteorite-list] UNCUT NWAs (was, "Unclassified NWAs")


> Hi All,
>
> Michael Blood wrote:
>
> > Hi Bob & all,
> > Am I missing something here? Have there been a bunch of
> > people committing meteorite fraud that I haven't known about?
> > The only fraud (since the So. American Museum theft) that I
> > know of is an occasional jive turkey on ebay that found a stupid
> > rock and thinks it is a meteorite. Are there people committing
> > meteorite fraud OTHER than the occasional nit wits that show
> > up on eBay?
>
> Perhaps you missed my lengthy message to the list.
> We're talking about *location* fraud, not meteorwrong
> fraud. If an unscrupulous individual purchases an
> uncut, unclassified Moroccan meteorite, and then months
> or even years later "rediscovers" this meteorite in,
> say, Utah -- NO ONE WOULD BE ABLE TO TELL. I discussed
> this very scenario with Alan Rubin yesterday, and he
> said it is certainly plausible, and could quite possibly
> have already happened.
>
> Sure, if you did some very detailed meteorite forensics,
> you might be able to prove the meteorite came from the
> Sahara (or at least that it did NOT come from where the
> "finder" said it did). But no classification lab is
> going to go to that much trouble. They have too many
> meteorites to classify, and they simply have to take
> people at their word.
>
> > ...all this talk about meteorite fraud strikes me as very paranoid.
>
> Call it preventative paranoia. But you better believe that
> if there is an easy way to make a 5:1 or 10:1 profit on
> an investment, some fool is going to try it. Certainly no
> one from this list -- the risk of being exposed and eternally
> black-listed has to far outweigh any monetary gain from
> the sale of a few transported OCs.
>
> All I'm really trying to say is that the current Moroccan
> situation introduces an unnecessary "loophole". With a little
> extra effort on the part of those who go to Morocco to buy
> meteorites in bulk, this loophole can be closed. One
> solution is to cut a little slice off every meteorite or
> meteorite fragment above a certain mass (25g? 50g? 100g?).
> (No sense bothering below 25g -- their can't be that many
> desparate people willing to commit fraud for a lousy $50
> or $100).
>
> Perhaps this is much ado about nothing. But I've seen this
> list work itself up into a lather over the obvious meteorwrongs
> that pop up on eBay periodically. Why is an obvious fraud
> more of a concern than an undetectable fraud? --Rob
>
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Received on Wed 24 Jan 2001 02:53:30 PM PST