[meteorite-list] Iron Meteorite for sale

[Impactika at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/3/2007 5:39:09 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
meteoritekid at gmail.com writes:
Hello Bob, Lists,
Beware of a seller  calling himself Bob Frankline, who is attempting to
pass off a Chinga  (currently on the Labenne webside, weight 499g) as a
Mauritanian/NWA iron of  any weight (he stated that it weighed 1091g).

I did some sleuthing; the  picture that was sent to me sure looked like
a Chinga, so I searched for  Chinga meteorites on google and the third
hit was, well, it showed me the  very same picture that I'd been sent
of his "1091g Mauritanian  meteorite."

See here for the picture that he sent to  me:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f306/JUtas/wals.jpg

and here  for the Labennes' site and the identical  image:

http://www.meteorites.tv/index.html?lang=en-us&target=d428.html

The  seller stated that it had been "analysed in polytechnique de  Vincent
Bordeaux,in France when [he] was on transit to Cameroon from  Mauritania."
I tend to be trusting with such things, but this was an odd  story, so
I asked for more pictures/information, etc.

He said that he  would prefer to leave it uncut, but that it had aready
been analysed with the  following results:

Chemically it contains 26.7%Ni,76%martensite and  24%taesite,0.072ppm Ge
0.177ppm Ga and finally it is 11.7ppm Ir.

Load  of crap, as you can see, both the data and the fact that it was
analysed  without being cut.

So...beware of a 'Bob Frankline' or old material being  passed off as a
'new NWA iron.'  If the story's suspicious, or the irons  doesn't look
like a desert iron, just me  mindful...

Regards,
Jason
-------------------------------------------------------
 
Very interesting Jason.
Apparently he simply stole that picture of the Labenne's website.
And he is not very good at simple math (26.7 + 76 + 24 = more than  100%)     
:-)
 
Maybe Pierre-Marie Pele can do a quick search and tell us if there is a  
"polytechnique de Vincent
Bordeaux" or if the University of Bordeaux does  meteorite analysis.
That would close the argument.

Anne M.  Black
www.IMPACTIKA.com
IMPACTIKA at aol.com
President, I.M.C.A.  Inc.
www.IMCA.cc
 



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