[meteorite-list] Beauty and the Beast, Tulia (a) +/- Dimmitt

[Notkin]

Mark posted:

> One is a fragment individual with a Nininger number and a second 
> collection number.  Could someone identify the
> second collection number for me?  I've seen like collection numbers 
> before.
>
> http://www.meteoritearticles.com/coldimmitt.html


Dear Mark and List:

I had the pleasure of discussing this matter in detail with our friend 
and colleague Dr. Art Ehlmann, curator of the Monnig Meteorite Gallery. 
As Mark already knows, Art and Oscar Monnig were longtime friends, and 
Art has been caring for (and expanding) the Monnig collection for many 
years.

The Monnig Meteorite Gallery is located in Fort Worth, TX. I heartily 
recommend a visit to this excellent museum:  
http://www.monnigmuseum.tcu.edu

Mark, regarding your specimen: You are very knowledgeable as it regards 
historic specimens, but if I may contradict you in a friendly manner, 
the top number "M138.102" is actually a Monnig (Huss) Collection 
number, not a Nininger number. "138" was Glenn Huss' designation for 
Dimmitt, Texas specimens from the Monnig collection. Glen Huss and 
Margaret Nininger Huss cataloged the Monnig collection and painted 
those numbers onto the specimens. The lower number "12AV" is a true 
original Oscar Monnig number, which predates the later Huss catalog. It 
is my understanding that the "12AV" number was painted on by Oscar 
himself. As such, your specimen has a double Huss and Monnig provenance 
and is a fine and extremely collectible historic specimen. Congrats.

For those who are interested in collection numbers and historic 
American meteorites, please see photos of comparable Monnig specimens 
(Dimmitt and Tulia) here:

http://www.aerolite.org/historic-meteorites.htm


Sincerely,

Geoff N.
www.aerolite.org