[meteorite-list] Re: moning numbers?????

From: Notkin <geoking_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Dec 30 22:41:01 2004
Message-ID: <C6A5BBC4-5ADD-11D9-B840-000393593854_at_notkin.net>

Mike Miller posted:

> The numbers are printed on the meteorite with a fine white paint. The
meteorites in question are all Toluca's and here are some examples.
M8.35, M8.109, M8.41. I have several others but this should be enough
to tell if they mean anything.


Dear Mike and List:

Good evening.

Well done Mike, you've acquired specimens from Oscar Monnig's meteorite
collection. Oscar Monnig (1902 - 1999) was a native of Ft. Worth,
Texas, a contemporary (and sometime colleague and competitor) of
Nininger's, and one of America's great meteorite collectors.

You can read all about him here: http://monnigmuseum.tcu.edu/oscar.htm


Oscar donated his very extensive meteorite collection to Texas
Christian University in Ft. Worth, and the highlights of that
collection are now on display in the fabulous Monnig Gallery of
Meteorites at TCU. Both the Curator and Director of the gallery are
List members. As you may know, I designed the Monnig Gallery's website.

Glenn Huss (Nininger's son-in-law), of the American Meteorite Lab,
cataloged Oscar's collection (I think in the 1980s? Can someone help me
here?), and he is almost certainly the one who painted the numbers on
each of your specimens. "M8.xxx" is indeed the notation that Glenn used
for Oscar's Toluca specimens. M1 represented Deport, M13 represented
Canyon Diablo, M137 represented Allende, and so on through the
collection. So the numbers on your specimens show that you have the
35th Toluca that Glenn cataloged ("M" for Monnig + "8" for Toluca +
specimen #35), and the 109th, etc.

I think it's safe to say that most collectors consider Monnig specimens
-- or any specimens with historic numbers -- to be very collectable,
and they're certainly worth more (both historically and monetarily)
than "ordinary" Tolucas.

You can search a database of Oscar's entire collection here:
http://monnigmuseum.tcu.edu/Search.html

I hope this helps!


Best wishes,

Geoff N.
Received on Thu 30 Dec 2004 10:40:55 PM PST