[meteorite-list] Iron Meteorite for sale

From: Impactika at aol.com <Impactika_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 22:16:21 EDT
Message-ID: <cb4.ff71629.336bf175_at_aol.com>

In a message dated 5/3/2007 5:39:09 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,
meteoritekid at gmail.com writes:
Hello Bob, Lists,
Beware of a seller calling himself Bob Frankline, who is attempting to
pass off a Chinga (currently on the Labenne webside, weight 499g) as a
Mauritanian/NWA iron of any weight (he stated that it weighed 1091g).

I did some sleuthing; the picture that was sent to me sure looked like
a Chinga, so I searched for Chinga meteorites on google and the third
hit was, well, it showed me the very same picture that I'd been sent
of his "1091g Mauritanian meteorite."

See here for the picture that he sent to me:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f306/JUtas/wals.jpg

and here for the Labennes' site and the identical image:

http://www.meteorites.tv/index.html?lang=en-us&target=d428.html

The seller stated that it had been "analysed in polytechnique de Vincent
Bordeaux,in France when [he] was on transit to Cameroon from Mauritania."
I tend to be trusting with such things, but this was an odd story, so
I asked for more pictures/information, etc.

He said that he would prefer to leave it uncut, but that it had aready
been analysed with the following results:

Chemically it contains 26.7%Ni,76%martensite and 24%taesite,0.072ppm Ge
0.177ppm Ga and finally it is 11.7ppm Ir.

Load of crap, as you can see, both the data and the fact that it was
analysed without being cut.

So...beware of a 'Bob Frankline' or old material being passed off as a
'new NWA iron.' If the story's suspicious, or the irons doesn't look
like a desert iron, just me mindful...

Regards,
Jason
-------------------------------------------------------
 
Very interesting Jason.
Apparently he simply stole that picture of the Labenne's website.
And he is not very good at simple math (26.7 + 76 + 24 = more than 100%)
:-)
 
Maybe Pierre-Marie Pele can do a quick search and tell us if there is a
"polytechnique de Vincent
Bordeaux" or if the University of Bordeaux does meteorite analysis.
That would close the argument.

Anne M. Black
www.IMPACTIKA.com
IMPACTIKA at aol.com
President, I.M.C.A. Inc.
www.IMCA.cc
 



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Received on Thu 03 May 2007 10:16:21 PM PDT