[meteorite-list] Labeling specimens

From: countdeiro at earthlink.net <countdeiro_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:21:27 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <12859816.1267287687142.JavaMail.root_at_wamui-junio.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

Good Morning Martin and List,

I truly believe that we homo sapiens have a well developed ability to remember past beneficial and not so beneficial actions accomplished by our predecessors in order to guide us when important decisions have to be made.

What was good enough for the likes of Lylle, Huss, Nininger, Kurat, Kulik and so many other pioneers and experts in meteorite collection and curating....should point the way for us...PAINT NUMBERS ON THEM!.....Or write up a nice little piece of software that allows you to take a decent digital macro photo of your sprecimens and manipulate it into a nicely referenced data base for easily referenced identification and description.

Regards to all...and I had a wondefull time in Tucson..thanks to so many from the List,

Count Deiro
IMCA 3536



-----Original Message-----
>From: martin goff <msgmeteorites at googlemail.com>
>Sent: Feb 27, 2010 3:50 AM
>To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Labeling specimens
>
>All,
>
>Thanks for your all your comments on and off list, most interesting. I
>think i am being steered
>away from directly labelling my stones unless they are NWA or
>unclassified. However it seems a bit of a double standard that if i
>were to label my specimens myself it would be somehow frowned upon yet
>we as collectors value specimens with Nininger/Huss numbers etc. If
>for example a specimen was obtained say from the Manchester museum
>with one of their recently applied labels on would any of us remove the
>label? I very much doubt it, we would prize that specimen as showing
>provenance from that collection, that would match their catalogue etc.
>etc. In 50 or 100 or however many years that specimen would only get
>more and more historical and that label have more and more importance
>attached to it.
>
>I suppose my point is that would we now have the same number of
>Nininger/Huss etc.labelled stones if they didn't have numbers written
>directly on them? If say they had been displayed/sold in a bag or box
>with a label but no markings on, over time would some have have been
>separated from their boxes/bags and labels? I would hazard a guess
>that quite a few would have suffered this fate and now we would be
>left with some unidentifiable stones.
>
>Although by saying this i am placing no importance whatsoever on me as
>an individual collector or my own numbers as being valuable other than
>to avoid the situation of misidentified or unidentified specimens in
>the future. As only temporary custodians of our collections surely
>making sure that our collections can easily be passed on without any
>missing info is of prime importance?
>
>Numbering specimens directly is surely the most foolproof method of
>achieving this? All the labels on boxes/bags and display stands etc.
>are meaningless when the specimen is removed. All the photos of the
>specimen stored either in hard copy or digital form are subject to
>being lost or destroyed. I know these are all extreme circumstances
>and most of the time these steps that we take will be absolutely fine
>as specimens stay with their displays/cards etc. but if there is a
>possibility, however small of accidents happening should we not do
>more?
>
>As an example of the situation i want to avoid see the photo of the
>orphaned stone in the article on a recent visit to the Manchester
>museum (http://www.bimsociety.org/article-manchester.shtml) If this
>had an original number on it it probably would not be in the situation
>its in now. Its more than a distinct possibility that this is stone
>from a historical fall and yet we may never know........
>
>Anyway, some food for thought!
>
>Cheers
>
>
>Martin
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Received on Sat 27 Feb 2010 11:21:27 AM PST