[meteorite-list] NWA 1110 issues

[MARK BOSTICK]

Hello everyone,

I have no commercial interest in NWA 1110.  I have never sold any of the 
meteorite, I think I might have a small sample with a Farmer card 
somewhere….and I traded for a 2.5g slice of NWA 1068, the first classified 
from this pairing, from Bruno in Tucson, a couple months after it came out.  
It is a very desirable and interesting looking meteorite. By the next Denver 
show, Moroccans sellers were selling for if I remember $225/g.  (Denver was 
slow that year).  Around then you could also purchase on eBay, some sold as 
"NWA 1068 / NWA 1110".  All these samples looked paired to me.  At the same 
time you could purchase the same meteorite from Morocco.  (And some did so 
now we have several more numbers). This is not unusual.  Almost every NWA 
meteorite has been like this for a while. (Bensour, NWA CR2, the meso, et 
al).  Current examples are CV3 and Howardite.  Both you can purchase real 
right now in Morocco, and both most dealers are selling.

Bruno didn't find NWA 1068 while "hunting", he got it through the Moroccan 
market.  Others selling the paired material didn't find theirs hunting 
either. We will never know the total TKW's of NWA's.  The nature of the NWA 
market makes that impossible. We can complain about this if we want but that 
won’t change Africa.

Do not get me wrong Adam.  It seems to me that you pair NWA’s, so I don‘t 
see why your making a public complaint about others doing it…..when it 
appears to be correct pairing.  Nor do I understand your desire to try to 
come up with some controversary every week.  I am sure that the meteorites 
you sell are the meteorites you claim them to be.

I have several nice meteorites from the Hupe collection. Not much of my 
NWA’s are shown in my website gallery, but here are a few examples.

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colnwa968.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colwagonmound.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colNWA1195.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colnwa924.html

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/colNWA949.html


Adam asked, "What is to stop a crooked or uninformed person from selling 
terrestrial pebbles as NWA 1110 if there are no standards? What if somebody 
published your cartoons without first getting your permission? What if they 
drew a lousy cartoon and claimed you drew it?"

There is nothing in the “system” to stop someone from cheating and making an 
outright lie.  A society that had such control blocks, probley wouldn’t be 
that fun of a place to live.  If someone drew a cartoon and claimed I drew 
it, I would hope that it was funny. (Proud Tom did do that kind of in his 
last special……but that’s another story).

Unlike my comics, meteorites are a natural history item.  Historically, when 
we are involved in such fields.  We get noted credit for the first 
find....and in the case of NWA 1110 / 1068, we will even give you credit for 
having the second find, something that usually doesn't get magazine write 
ups, but I did enjoy the article.  However, we don’t get to own the name of 
the fossil, mineral.....or meteorite. (Good thing, or we would all be paying 
Nininger's family a hefty commission).

So what do we do if we are worried about the possible pairing of something?  
(Not that TKW's should keep anyone up at night). That seems simple to 
me…..there are plenty of meteorites.

See some of you in one week,
Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
www.meteoritearticles.com

(Which flipped the hit counter for the 5th time a few days ago).