[meteorite-list] Koenigsbrueck, Saxonia is a hot desert find

From: John Gwilliam <jkg2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:20:36 -0700
Message-ID: <20090728162051.IERP1223.fed1rmmtao103.cox.net_at_fed1rmimpo02.cox.net>

Several years ago, when the NWAs started showing
up in large amounts, there were several people on
this list (including myself) who were concerned
about "false finds" being submitted as new
meteorites. It doesn't take dishonest people too
long to figure out that a common meteorite
purchased at a show can be planted in some new
location where a new find would bring a lot of money.

I don't know how this can be prevented or
avoided, but it's pretty obvious that dealing
with people you know very well is a step in the right direction.

Just four days after Jack Schrader announced his
first finds of the latest Arizona fall, I got a
phone call from a guy in Southern Arizona who
claimed he had a new Arizona meteorite he had
found three and a half years ago and he was going
to sell it at auction. He wasn't clear about what
kind of auction he intended to use, but I got the
idea he was going to offer it to whoever offered
him the highest "bid" over the phone.

I get so many calls like this I was going to tell
the man I wasn't interested but decided to ask
him a few questions. His answers were typical and
somewhat amusing. The find location was somewhere
in Southern Arizona, but he wouldn't narrow it
down any more than that. He claimed the first
test he had done was a fire assay. Hmmmm, seems
like a weird test for a meteorite. Next, when
asked what the classification was, he said it was
an anomalous achondrite with 28% nickel. He had
sliced the nearly 2 kilo stone and had a ~750
gram slice that was full of metal veins. To get
the metal to show up better he had etched the
slice with pure nitric acid. as I asked more
questions, his answers got more evasive.

Sure hope I didn't miss out on a good deal, but
my common sense told me to take a pass.

There's nothing to prevent someone from offering
an inexpensive NWA meteorite as a new find. As
long as they stick to their story it's near
impossible to prove them wrong. It has happened
to me a few times so I'm guessing it has happened
to other List members as well. Is there a
solution to this? I guess only time will tell.

Best from sunny Arizona where we're expecting 115F today,

John Gwilliam





At 07:16 AM 7/28/2009, Martin Altmann wrote:
>Hello list,
>
>because I couldn't find it mentioned yet on the list here.
>
>In the last German meteorite, a "find" made in 2004 in Saxonia by a
>moldavites hunter,
>typical weathering feautures of hot desert meteorites were found.
>So it was a fake.
>
>Hopefully K?nigsbr?ck will be soon removed from the Meteorite Bulletin
>Database?
>
>Unfortunately I still find there another skeleton in the cupboard of German
>meteorites listed as an official meteorite.
>
>Inningen, Bavaria, 1998.
>
>The Ni-content and the trace element data are consistent with Sikhote-Alin
>and the piece is a typical shrapnel.
>(That's why no structural type had could been determined).
>
> >From impact dynamics we all know, that shrapnels are produced only by
>impacts of major iron masses.
>
>Inningen was a single 1.2kg specimen, "found" on a road.
>
>It's highest time after 10 years now, I'd say, to remove Inningen from the
>Catalogue or at least to mark it as doubtful.
>
>(That becomes more and more a fashion to fake finds. A while ago someone in
>Germany claimed to have found a Gibeon in a quarry - and 2 weeks ago a
>German tried me to sell a meteorite he had found here by his own - an
>indochinite!)
>
>Best!
>Martin
>
>
>
>
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John Gwilliam

Too many people were born on third base
and go through life thinking they hit a triple.
Received on Tue 28 Jul 2009 12:20:36 PM PDT