[meteorite-list] Re: moning numbers?????

[Notkin]

Mike Miller posted:

 > The numbers are printed on the meteorite with a fine white paint. The 
meteorites in question are all Toluca's and here are some examples. 
M8.35, M8.109, M8.41. I have several others but this should be enough 
to tell if they mean anything.


Dear Mike and List:

Good evening.

Well done Mike, you've acquired specimens from Oscar Monnig's meteorite 
collection. Oscar Monnig (1902 - 1999) was a native of Ft. Worth, 
Texas, a contemporary (and sometime colleague and competitor) of 
Nininger's, and one of America's great meteorite collectors.

You can read all about him here:  http://monnigmuseum.tcu.edu/oscar.htm


Oscar donated his very extensive meteorite collection to Texas 
Christian University in Ft. Worth, and the highlights of that 
collection are now on display in the fabulous Monnig Gallery of 
Meteorites at TCU. Both the Curator and Director of the gallery are 
List members. As you may know, I designed the Monnig Gallery's website.

Glenn Huss (Nininger's son-in-law), of the American Meteorite Lab, 
cataloged Oscar's collection (I think in the 1980s? Can someone help me 
here?), and he is almost certainly the one who painted the numbers on 
each of your specimens. "M8.xxx" is indeed the notation that Glenn used 
for Oscar's Toluca specimens. M1 represented Deport, M13 represented 
Canyon Diablo, M137 represented Allende, and so on through the 
collection. So the numbers on your specimens show that you have the 
35th Toluca that Glenn cataloged ("M" for Monnig +  "8" for Toluca + 
specimen #35), and the 109th, etc.

I think it's safe to say that most collectors consider Monnig specimens 
-- or any specimens with historic numbers -- to be very collectable, 
and they're certainly worth more (both historically and monetarily) 
than "ordinary" Tolucas.

You can search a database of Oscar's entire collection here:  
http://monnigmuseum.tcu.edu/Search.html

I hope this helps!


Best wishes,

Geoff N.