[meteorite-list] Does this NWA look familiar to anyone?

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jan 27 14:35:01 2005
Message-ID: <11giv09t2upf2n61s7q0d71m7ff9a4v771_at_4ax.com>

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:12:16 -0500, Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_charter.net> wrote:

>I've just bought what to me is a very interesting looking unclassified NWA piece, and I was
>wondering it looks distinctivly like any numbered NWA find to anyone-- in other words, is it a piece
>from a known find. It has a very dark, possibly greenish matrix, brecciation, and as far as I can
>tell from the photos, it seem to have a low metal content. I of course can take much better photos
>when it reaches me, but I was hoping it might jump out at someone.
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6506068469

Update on this: before the piece arrived I was browsing Ebay and came across a seller with several
slices of "NWA 787" which looked very similar to my unknown piece. I did a quick Google search,
though, and found that NWA 787 is a probable synonym for NWA 869.

So the lot of pieces (I bought several other items from the seller at the same time) arrived today,
and the very card that came with it labeled it as NWA 869! So I'm torn on this issue. While on the
one hand it seems to me pretty dishonest by the seller to clearly call it unclassified in the
auction (possibly as an deliberate attempt to make it seem more unusual rather than a simple
mistake), on the other hand it still is a beautiful piece with significant flow features and is
probably well worth the slightly less than 50 cents per gram that I paid for it. (Which is more
than three times more than I have paid for NWA 869 in the past, but still cheaper than the $3-ish
per gram the other seller wanted for the similar "NWA 787".)

Look at these scans I made of the piece now that I have it (actual piece not quite as contrasty as
scan makes it look).

http://webpages.charter.net/garrison6328/nwa869_orientedslice_top.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/garrison6328/nwa869_orientedslice_bottom.jpg

So how would you handle this-- be upset with the seller for calling it "unclassified" when it was
NWA 869, or just be happy with the piece and let it slide?
Received on Thu 27 Jan 2005 02:36:19 PM PST