Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 131

Collectible Auction

Fossils

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 741		Opalized 120 Million Year Old Coober Pedy Fossil Belemnite. The best quality of fire opal comes from the famous Coober Pedy region of Australia. Coober Pedy is a very small town in northern South Australia. As rare as fire opals are, they are much rarer to find in a fossil. This 3.5 X 2.5 inch natural beige colored stone matrix contains a 36mm (about 1.5 inch) 120 million year old opalized belemnite that has been polished to reveal the fine fire opal colors of orange, purple and green. Belemnites are an extinct group of cephalopods that are related to squid and the chambered nautilus. The only part of the extinct belemnite that fossilizes is the torpedo shaped shell that is contained inside its body and makes it rigid for swimming. This is a rare opportunity to purchase a gemstone (Opal) contained within a 120 million year old fossil. Estimated Value $1,200 - 1,500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 742		Duckbill Dinosaur Partial Mandible With 14 Teeth. Edmontosaurus annectens was a very large herbivore that was a favorite food choice for T-Rex. It is known as a Duckbill dinosaur because of its wide toothless beak. Behind the beak were rows of hundreds of replaceable teeth in its back jaw and Maxilla. This seven inch long section of the Maxilla has 14 original teeth with four partial teeth with replacement teeth forming beneath the exposed teeth. The excellent quality bone is a lovely brown color and no restoration. It is 65-67 million years old and was found on a private ranch in the Lance Creek Formation of Niobrara county Wyoming. Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 743		Colorful Agatized 150 Million Year Old Dinosaur Vertebrae Bone. Agatized dinosaur bone occurs when the hollow bone structure of the dinosaur is replaced by quartz and trace minerals such as iron over millions of years. The best quality agatized dinosaur bone comes from the Jurassic era in Utah from the 150 million year old Morrison Formation. This half of a vertebrae from a dinosaur (probably a sauropod) was found in two pieces, 5 X 4 inches and 4 ½ X 4 inches. Both halves were polished revealing excellent bone structure and colors ranging from beige to many shades of brown all the way up to orange(due to iron minerals). Estimated Value $350 - 500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 744		Two Excellently Detailed 325 Million Year Old Crinoids. Crinoids, known as sea lilies, look like a plant but are actually animals related to starfish and have a five -fold symmetry. They open their arms and filter feed small animals and detritus. Some of the finest fossil crinoid come from the 325 Million Year Old fossil beds in Crawfordsville, Indiana. There are two excellently detailed Crinoids in this lot. A 4 ½ inch long Onychocrinus ulrichi has a one inch Calyx (head) and a 3 ½ inch stem. The head consists of five arms curled up which would have been opened fully to filter feed when the Crinoid was alive. The second unidentified Crinoid is 4 ¼ inches long with a 1 � inch Calyx and a 2 ½ inch stem. It has excellent detail of its feather-like structures in its arms as well as two pyritized brachiopod shells. Estimated Value $300 - 500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 745		Two 375 Million Year Old Pyritized Furcaster Brittle Starfish. The black pyritized 375 million year old fossils from Bundenbach Southeast Germany are eagerly sought by fossil collectors since all of the pits have closed. Bundenbach black slate was mined for roofing tiles since the 16th century with the occasional fossil being found. This lot contains two Furcaster Brittle Stars. The first is 4 ½ X ½ inches on a 8 X 5 inch black slate slab. All five arms are present and elongated on both sides of the central body with one arm being disarticulated. The second Furcaster looks a lot different being 3 X 1 ½ inches on a 5 X 41/2 inch black slate slab. All five arms are present although one is slightly disarticulated. Brittle stars have five thin arms that are quite mobile that they can attach themselves to the sea bottom and filter feed on small sea creatures and detritus. Estimated Value $300 - 500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details	Unsold
Lot 746		Duckbill Dinosaur Toe Bone and Metatarsal. Edmontosaurus annectens was a very large herbivore that was a favorite food choice for T-Rex. It is known as a Duckbill dinosaur because of its wide toothless beak. There is a 5 X 2 ½ X 1 ½ inch toe bone and a large 8 X 4 X 3 inch metatarsal bone. The toe bone is in excellent condition displaying fine bone structure. The metatarsal bone displays well on the top side and has repairs on its backside. These dinosaur bones are 65-67 million years old and were found on a private ranch in the Lance Creek Formation of Buffalo, South Dakota. Estimated Value $300 - 500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $188
Lot 747		475 Million Year Old Sea Bottom Slab with Many Trilobite Molts. Trilobites were one of the most successful sea creatures of all time having survived from 520 - 250 million years ago only becoming extinct after the Permian extinction. Trilobites were arthropods with no surviving relatives. They were one of the first animals to have compound eyes and hard calcite shells. In order to grow they had to shed their old shell and grow another larger one. This 475 million year old 7 X 6 inch sea bottom slab from Carter County, Oklahoma contains more than a dozen molts up to 2 inches long of the trilobite Homotelus bromidensis. Some of the molts are preserved upside down (ventral) revealing their hypostome (mouth). There are also other remnants of sea creatures present such as the shells of brachiopods. Estimated Value $300 - 500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 748		150 Million Year Old Flying Insect with Color Pattern on Body and Wings. This13 mm lont unidentified 150 million year old flying insect from Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia is complete and perfectly preserved with excellent detail on the head with mouth and eyes and on the body with a well defined color striping and a color pattern on the wings. Both positive and negative halves of this remarkable fossil are included on 4 ¼ X 2 3/4 inch limestone slabs with very distinct color patterns on the body of both halves and a color winged pattern most visible on the positive half. The actual color might possibly be determined if with a microscope the melonosomes are identified by shape as each shape of melonosomes represents a different color. Estimated Value $300 - UP Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 749		Rare Large Aegerocioceras Aberrant Ammonite From Germany. Ammonites looked like squid in a shell and became extinct along with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This large 8 X 6½" aberrant ammonite is 100 million years old from Germany. It is contained a hard stone concretion that when it was cracked in half revealed this spectacular uncoiled ammonite. Aberrant ammonites began to uncoil from the usual coiled ammonite shape from some unknown reason in the Cretaceous. This virtually complete dark brown uncoiled trilobite is rare and interesting. Estimated Value $250 - 400 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 750		Three 475 Million Year Old Ampyx Trilobites with Two Hyoliths. This 6X4 inch dark gray slab from Hmar Logdad, Erfoud, Morocco contains three 475 Million year old distinctive dark brown Ampyx trilobites, two are complete with the largest being 2 ¼ inches long. There are also two mysterious Hyolith animals with small conical shells with an operculum cover. This long extinct animal is believed to have been a type of mollusc. Estimated Value $200 - 500 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 751		Pair of 450 Million Year Old Trilobites from St. Petersburg. Some of the best preserved and most beautiful life-like trilobites come from Wolchow river streams near St. Petersburg, Russia. Both of these 450 million year old trilobites are a light brown color with elevated eye stalks. The 2 inch long Asaphus punclatus is preserved crawling over the 4 ½ X 3 inch limestone matrix which makes it look like it is alive. The other 2 1/2 inch long Neoasaphus is centered on a 5 X 3 ½ inch natural limestone matrix. Estimated Value $200 - UP Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 752		Walliserops Trilobite with Trident Appendage. Walliserops is one of the more bizarre of the spiny trilobites of Morocco. What makes it so strange is the trident shaped appendage on the front of its head. What this was used for is pure conjecture with digging in the soft ocean sand being the most likely. The highly detailed professional preparation on this complete 1 � X 1 inch 380 million year old trilobite from Ikelel Gara, Southern Morocco looks like it is crawling over a rock, with excellent detail on the long curved spines on the backs of its compound eyes, the small individual lenses on one of its the compound eyes and the distinguishing trident appendage on the head. This weird looking black trilobite is nicely displayed on its original 3 ½ X 3 inch limestone matrix. Estimated Value $200 - UP Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $125
Lot 753		Orange-Brown Agatized Dinosaur Bone. Agatized dinosaur bone occurs when the hollow bone structure of the dinosaur is replaced by quartz and trace minerals such as iron over millions of years. The best quality agatized dinosaur bone comes from the Jurassic era in Utah from the 150 million year old Morrison Formation. This thick dinosaur bone is 4 X 3 inches and has a 3 ½ X 2 ½ inch polished end that reveals the bone structure which cells are either orange or brown in color. Estimated Value $200 - UP Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 754		Scarce Large 3 Inch Bird Footprint from Green River. Green River, Wyoming is famous for its excellently detailed fish fossils, but there are some much rarer bird footprint fossils found on the perimeter of the 52 million year old dried lakebed. This highly detailed large 3 inch bird footprint on a 8 ½ X 6 ½ light gray matrix has all three toes splayed out as well as a definition of its toenail on the longest central toe. There are some smaller footprints occasionally found but a large print of this size is rare. Estimated Value $200 - UP Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 755		Albertosaurus Dinosaur Tooth. Albertosaurus was a somewhat smaller version of its more famous relative T-Rex growing to just over 30 feet long. Albertosaurus may be a direct ancestor of T-Rex. Unlike T-Rex, Albertosaurus had two short bony crests above its eyes and was also older than T-Rex at 70 million years old and found only in the Judith River Formation of Montana and Canada. This 1 ½ inch mottled brown tooth was found on a private ranch in Montana. It is complete with good enamel and with a small section of the tip being expertly reattached with a minor chip on the very tip. Estimated Value $150 - UP Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 756		Three Complete Green River Bird Feathers. Green River Wyoming is famous for its exquisitely fossilized 50 million year old fish but there are other rarer fossils found there as well such as these very well preserved bird feathers. The dark brown feathers vary in size from ½ - 1 ¼ inches long and are nicely contrasted against the cream colored limestone matrix. Estimated Value $100 - 300 Collection of Richard Kosta. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold