[meteorite-list] My apology to Mike Farmer

From: Alexander Seidel <alex.seidel_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2013 15:00:49 +0200 (CEST)
Message-ID: <trinity-001f95a6-a557-45bf-87a0-ee0a467a7cf7-1370782849241_at_3capp-gmx-bs63>

Kudos, Martin! Give him (and Andi) a hand, folks!

Nobody is perfectly immune to errors, and this one was
by no means intentional. They apologized, and this is
very honorable, and even more: it is outstanding!

Alex
Berlin/Germany




> Gesendet: Sonntag, 09. Juni 2013 um 14:33 Uhr
> Von: "Martin Altmann" <altmann at meteorite-martin.de>
> An: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Betreff: [meteorite-list] My apology to Mike Farmer
>
> (A.S.: Hi Art, please let it through, it's important for me, but also for
> the collectors for not falling for the same scam)
>
>
> Hello,
>
> After a few days of contemplation (sorry for having been slow, but they were
> necessary for me to cool down),
> I want to publically and cordially apology to you all, and especially to
> Mike Farmer, hoping he will accept it.
> I was wrong and my reaction was crude, unjust and inadequate.
> All three specimens in question turned out to be fakes.
>
> Mike was right
> and due to his expertise it was avoided that the pseudo-Estherville came in
> further circulation,
> neither the forged Bondoc nor the faked Murchison were distributed,
> so that a direct damage, caused by my fault, to the community was averted.
> Therefore we have to thank Mike.
>
> Those fakes must have been built by someone, who has a deeper knowledge
> about meteorites,
> as it's relatively uncommon, that classical names of semi-rarely meteorites
> are used and the fakes equipped with a legend and labels. (So far we can
> recall only another case, the forged Dhofar-Moon, which was more easy to
> unmask, as the specimens came with a "certification" of the university
> Muenster, which doesn't issue such, and the find was only one stone, so that
> the finder himself immediately could identify them as fakes, as no fragments
> of that stone did exist).
>
> We tried to investigate the case further, fearing that more of such fakes
> will appear to the harm of the collectors.
> But the seller seems to be now untraceable.
> His name is: Jank? Zolt?n from Hungary. He claimed to have purchased an
> older mineral collection a few years ago, where these specimens were a part
> of among other meteorites. And the collector's name, he gave, is: J?zsef
> Vida from Derecske.
>
> So we ask you all, to be extremely cautious (and to inform us) if persons of
> these names contact you.
>
>
> Well, 33 years I was able to sort out the fakes, wrongs, mislabeled ones,
> now I failed.
> That shouldn't and that mustn't happen and is in that field unforgivable.
> (At least, after having learned the lesson, also to behave better, I hope to
> stay fake-free now till 2046).
>
>
> So I end with the necessary: Mea maxima culpa,
> and stay in silent contrition until I'll be allowed
> to see the sun again..
>
> Martin Altmann
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Sun 09 Jun 2013 09:00:49 AM PDT