[meteorite-list] NWA 1110 issues

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 9 12:06:34 2004
Message-ID: <BAY4-F14HnEw8MJc0iU00008107_at_hotmail.com>

Hello everyone,

I have no commercial interest in NWA 1110. I have never sold any of the
meteorite, I think I might have a small sample with a Farmer card
somewhere….and I traded for a 2.5g slice of NWA 1068, the first classified
from this pairing, from Bruno in Tucson, a couple months after it came out.
It is a very desirable and interesting looking meteorite. By the next Denver
show, Moroccans sellers were selling for if I remember $225/g. (Denver was
slow that year). Around then you could also purchase on eBay, some sold as
"NWA 1068 / NWA 1110". All these samples looked paired to me. At the same
time you could purchase the same meteorite from Morocco. (And some did so
now we have several more numbers). This is not unusual. Almost every NWA
meteorite has been like this for a while. (Bensour, NWA CR2, the meso, et
al). Current examples are CV3 and Howardite. Both you can purchase real
right now in Morocco, and both most dealers are selling.

Bruno didn't find NWA 1068 while "hunting", he got it through the Moroccan
market. Others selling the paired material didn't find theirs hunting
either. We will never know the total TKW's of NWA's. The nature of the NWA
market makes that impossible. We can complain about this if we want but that
won’t change Africa.

Do not get me wrong Adam. It seems to me that you pair NWA’s, so I don‘t
see why your making a public complaint about others doing it…..when it
appears to be correct pairing. Nor do I understand your desire to try to
come up with some controversary every week. I am sure that the meteorites
you sell are the meteorites you claim them to be.

I have several nice meteorites from the Hupe collection. Not much of my
NWA’s are shown in my website gallery, but here are a few examples.

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colnwa968.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colwagonmound.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colNWA1195.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colnwa924.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colNWA949.html


Adam asked, "What is to stop a crooked or uninformed person from selling
terrestrial pebbles as NWA 1110 if there are no standards? What if somebody
published your cartoons without first getting your permission? What if they
drew a lousy cartoon and claimed you drew it?"

There is nothing in the “system” to stop someone from cheating and making an
outright lie. A society that had such control blocks, probley wouldn’t be
that fun of a place to live. If someone drew a cartoon and claimed I drew
it, I would hope that it was funny. (Proud Tom did do that kind of in his
last special……but that’s another story).

Unlike my comics, meteorites are a natural history item. Historically, when
we are involved in such fields. We get noted credit for the first
find....and in the case of NWA 1110 / 1068, we will even give you credit for
having the second find, something that usually doesn't get magazine write
ups, but I did enjoy the article. However, we don’t get to own the name of
the fossil, mineral.....or meteorite. (Good thing, or we would all be paying
Nininger's family a hefty commission).

So what do we do if we are worried about the possible pairing of something?
(Not that TKW's should keep anyone up at night). That seems simple to
me…..there are plenty of meteorites.

See some of you in one week,
Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
www.meteoritearticles.com

(Which flipped the hit counter for the 5th time a few days ago).
Received on Thu 09 Sep 2004 12:06:32 PM PDT