[meteorite-list] My Top 10 of classic meteorites for Beginners

From: Martin <Martin_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:17:40 2004
Message-ID: <004d01c3bd9b$85330600$1fed50d9_at_9y6y40j>

Hi - here's my Beginner's Top Ten,

because I'm sometimes asked, which meteorites would be suitable for the
beginning collector.

1. Mundrabilla (etched)
2. Juancheng
3. Sikhote-Alin
4. Allende
5. Millbillillie
6. A big unclassified NWA
7. DaG 735
8. A meteorite from your home country
9. Vaca Muerta
10. Dho 461

Remarks:
1. Mundrabilla with a proper etching is one of the most beautiful iron
meteorites. The lamellae are short and the fields small , thus already on
small surfaces there are a lot of details and the pattern visible (Neumanns,
Troilit eyes, sometimes barred..).
If you don't find an etched Mundrabilla, take a Gibeon, but take care, that
the Widmannstättern are not faible.

2. Juancheng
It's an obseved fall, cheap and much fresher than the Gao-Guenies. Perfect
Peas like Pultusk.
Cut, it's one of the best breccias, which you will find for the money.

3. Sikhote, of course. A famous fall, well available. Choose an entire
specimen with good regmaglypts (no shrapnel) and try to get a "blue" one
with real fusion crust.
It's the largest iron shower in modern times and the single one which
produced such an immense number of complete, regmaglypted fresh individuals.
No similar iron is available at a comparable low price.

4. Allende.
    one of the cheapest CV3. Covers the corbonaceous group. Contains the
oldest known minerals of the solar system. Observed fall. Take care not to
buy a brownish weathered specimen, choose a cut specimen with those large
witish, irregular shaped inclusions, called CAIs.

5. For the HED-Group Achondrites Millbillillie is ideal, it's fresh, a
classic locality and not more expensive than most of the weathered desert
eucrites. Take a fullslice or an endcut. Pay not more than 15/g at a dealer
or try to get it cheaper from ebay.

6. Now you'll need a real big specimen for putting on the desk, for
impressing your friends, for playing and for satisfying your haptic desires.
Take an unclassified desert find from ebay, don't pay more than 80-120/kg,
except it is a fresh crusted or oriented one. Criteria for the choice: You
just have to like it and it has to be LARGE!

7. All beginners want to have a piece from Moon or Mars!
    DaG 735 is fresher than DaG 476, both are the cheapest SNCs. Normal
price on ebay would be +/- 250$/g nowadays. Beware of those enthusiasts, who
still have them on their pages at prices from years ago of 1200/g and up.

8. All collectors will feel after a while, that they urgently need a
meteorite found as near as possible to their homes. Search the BMH-online
database to find the finds&falls of your home county and then: happy
hunting!

9. Vaca Muerta is by far the cheapest Mesosiderite. Cheaper than all rusty,
crusty desert Mesos.
    Take a cut specimen, it should be as fresh as possible (take a look if
it has much fresh metal) and choose that one, which has the largest variety
of inclusions. Pay not more than 2 - 2.5$/g.
If it should be a Pallasite: Brenham and Brahin are by far the cheapest, but
problematic concerning rust. Choose a sealed slice (and this is still no
guarantee, that it will remain stable!). Take a Brahin from ebay and don't
pay more than 2$/g.
More expensive, but aesthetic and good boys, are Imilac and Esquel. Very
stable without any prevention. Translucent slices of Imilac (forget the
individuals of Imilac, mostly they are skeletons without olivines) starts
approx. at 15/g, but are more difficult to find than Esquel.

10. See 7. Why Dho 461? Because some fools recently got hysteric about a
little oscillation of the Moon prices and didn't get it yet, that the prices
are now again the same as before this short period, so that they still throw
away their Dho 461 at 500$/g, which is a somewhat silly cheap price, hehe.

Keep your fingers away from Nantan, Campo del Cielo, Dronino - they are dirt
cheap, but often rust like hell, so that it's no fun at the beginning and
they will stay cheap until you are more experienced.

Any comments?
Martin A.



----- Original Message -----
From: "mark ford" <markf_at_ssl.gb.com>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 12:35 PM
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] My Top 10 of classic meteorites




Here's my top ten

1 Allende
2 Allende
3 Allende
4 Allende
5 Allende
6 Allende
7 Allende
8 Allende
9 Allende
10 Allende

But hey I'm not fussy.

:)




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Received on Mon 08 Dec 2003 09:56:43 AM PST