[meteorite-list] cleaning Millbillillie ?

[Alexander Seidel]

> I agree that there is a special characteristic that would be lost if the
> red staining were to be removed from a Millbillillie individual.  However,
> it is also great to have meteorites pristine with no terrestrial alteration.
> The priciest Millbillillies are those that with dark black glassy crusts.

No, a meteorite like Millbillillie should be looked at in a much more subtle way!
 
It fell in 1960, and was collected no earlier than 10 years later! Talking about
Millbillillie is exciting in many respects, as it e. g. displays different textures on
cut slices, but talking about exterior surface, I would always prefer a piece with
natural (laterite) patina over a piece which was somehow "cleaned" (..if this were
possible..) or has only got some more or less glossy black crust alone rather than
the brownish-reddish surface stains that are so very *typical* for this meteorite,
and are part of its "character", so to say...!

You are right insofar as, when we are talking about may be fresh Eucrites or fresh
Howardites, we are looking and longing for fresh glossy black crust in the first place,
as will be the case with e. g. the early collected pieces of a historical fall like Stannern, 
or some rare other finds and falls, but things are a quite a bit different with a fall like 
Millbillillie, even if it occured as late as 1960, considered a "fresh" fall....

Well, nothing but my two (Euro-)Cents,
Alex
Berlin/Germany