Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 99

The July 8-9, 2017 Manuscript, Space, Collectibles & Stamp Auction

Meteorites

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 748		Meteorite Admire Pallasite. This large complete section is 4.3 x 2.5" weighing 72 grams and is loaded with clear translucent yellow-green olivine crystals, with some approaching gem quality. The Admire Pallasite, named for its discovery in 1881 in Admire, Lyon County, Kansas, is one of the most beautiful of all known pallasites and is unique because its olivine crystals have a characteristic called chatoyancy. Estimate Value $800 - 1,000 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $625
Lot 749		Meteorite Sikhote-Alin with Regmaglypts. This 2¼ x 2 x 1", 315.2 gram Sikhote-Alin iron nickel meteorite is the rarer of the two types possessing regmaglypts, small crater-like impressions that formed by ablation of Troilite (Iron Sulfide) when the meteorite was streaking through the sky at high temperatures. The appearance of this meteorite, which fell in Siberia on February 12, 1947, is notable, for it is covered with variously sized regmaglypts and an unusual surface texture to resemble the skin of a reptile. Estimate Value $800 - 900 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 750		Moon Rock From a Lunar Meteorite, Dhofar 1180. This fairly large .9164 gram, 32 x 22mm thin section of the moon meteorite Dhofar 1180 is housed in a special membrane box for visibility on all sides. Lunar meteorites are the most desirable and expensive of all the types of meteorites recovered and are even rarer than meteorites from Mars. It has been classified as a Lunar feldspathic basalt-bearing regolith breccia, which means that it is a mixture of several different types of moon rocks with 75% Lunar highlands material and 25% Lunar Mare material. Estimate Value $700 - 900 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 751		Meteorite Etched Gibeon. Gibeon meteorites were found in the Kalahari Desert of Namibia, Africa from a fall that occurred thousands of years ago. This 2� x 1¾", 415 gram (nearly one pound) section has been polished and etched on its interior and all four sides exhibiting the extremely detailed, beautiful octahedral Widmanstatten pattern, as well as a natural back size with its original surface and fusion crust. Estimate Value $600 - 800 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $456
Lot 752		Main Mass of an Important Carbonaceous Meteorite. The NWA 5546 a CV3 carbonaceous meteorite, containing such organic compounds as amino acids, was found in the Sahara desert of Morocco in 2009. It consisted of 30 mostly small fragments weighing only 3.8 kg in total. This end cut, measuring 4 x 1½ x 1" and weighing 248 grams, comprises the main mass, meaning that it is the heaviest specimen known from this fall. It is chocolate brown in color with nearly 100% of its original fusion crust and is cut and polished on one side. The brown polished side shows many visible chondrites as well as several white Calcium Aluminum inclusions (CAIs) -- real "star dust" from the gases of the Super Novae that preceded the formation of our Solar System. Estimate Value $600 - 900 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $456
Lot 753		Meteorite Campo del Cielo Etched Half. The famous iron-nickel meteorite Campo del Cielo fell to the earth over 4,000 years ago in the mountainous region of Gran Chaco, Argentina. This heavy 5 x 3 x 2¾" meteorite cut in half weighs 4.5 pounds and has been polished and etched on two sides to show its Widmanstatten pattern, which results from two alloys of Nickel in the meteorite etching at different rates. This spectacular half meteorite has the original surface with regmaglypts and fusion crust all around, except for two sides that have been beautifully etched to show the coarse octahedrite pattern of this Type 1A iron-nickel meteorite. Estimate Value $600 - 700 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 754		Meteorite Campo Del Cielo 8 Pounds. First recorded by the Spanish in 1576, the huge fall of Campo del Cielo (Valley of the Sky) iron-nickel meteorites occurred thousands of years ago. This 6 x 5 x 3¼", 8 pound Campo del Cielo iron-nickel meteorites has an aesthetic shape with its iron-nickel surface covered with desirable regmaglypts (thumbprints) that formed when the meteor passed through Earth�s atmosphere and the troilite in the meteorite melted. In addition to its beautiful shape, this large complete meteorite has several very deep regmaglypts. Estimate Value $600 - 900 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $500
Lot 755		Meteorite Brahin Pallasite. Pallasites are stony-iron meteorites composed of an iron nickel matrix filled with crystals of olivine which is known as Peridot in its gem form. This is a large 61.7 gram, 3 x 2¾", gem quality polished slice of the Brahin Pallasite, found in the Gomel Region of Belorussia in 1810. It has many yellow-green translucent crystals of olivine. Estimate Value $500 - 700 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $480
Lot 756		NWA869 Stony Meteorite With Fusion Crust. This 4½ x 4 x 2", 948 gram (over two pounds), complete stony meteorite is a dark brown color with excellent fusion crust on three sides, with the bottom showing typical desert preservation. It has the official designation NWA 869 and is an ordinary chondrite (L3-L6) stony meteorite that is low in iron. It was found by nomadic Berbers in the sands of the Sahara desert in Morocco. Estimate Value $500 - 600 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 757		Rare Silicated Campo del Cielo Meteorite. Even though Campo del Cielo is an iron-nickel meteorite, there are a very small number of silicate Campo del Cielo meteorites that are actually a different type of meteorite altogether, a mesosiderite. The mix of iron-nickel and fragments of silicate rocks makes this a stony-iron meteorite known as a mesosiderite. This 127 gram, 2¾ x 2 x ¾" end cut is one half of a complete meteorite that is 50% silica and 50% iron-nickel. The cut side shows the interesting 50% mix of silica and the iron-nickel matrix, while the back side is natural with regmaglypts and an odd looking brown and gray color. Estimate Value $500 - 600 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 758		Three Different Types of Vesta Meteorites. Vesta is a very large asteroid with a diameter of over 326 miles and a gigantic deep impact crater at its South Pole. This lot includes three types of meteorites from Vesta. The first is a 26 x 25 mm slice of NWA 2126, a brecciated cumulate Eucrite, showing a mixture of surface rocks and weighing 4.9 grams. The second is a 18 x 18 mm, 3.4 grams fragment of NWA 3117, called Howardite, coming from a deeper part of the crater. The third, called a Diogenite, coming from even deeper, is a 2 x 21 mm fragment of NWA 5480 weighing 4.5 grams and showing several different colored inclusions in a light gray matrix. Estimate Value $400 - 500 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 759		Meteorite From Biggest Meteor Strike Since 1907. At 9:20 A.M. on the morning of February 15, 2013, a large 8-10 ton, 50' long meteor exploded 10-15 miles above the ancient city of Chelyabinsk, Russia with the force of over 500,000 tons of TNT -- 10 times the force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. This fresh and complete 40 x 18 x 10 mm, 14.1 gram stony meteorite is remarkable for its two different fusion crusts: a thick dark brown crust and a thinner black fusion crust, plus a view inside the meteorite in the area not covered by fusion crust. Estimate Value $300 - 400 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 760		Meteorite Sikhote-Alin with Flow Lines. 2½ x 2½ x 2" 320 gram Sikhote-Alin Iron-Nickel meteorite is a rare example of an interesting shrapnel type Sikhote-Alin meteorite with many crevices, surface scrapes and fresh fusion crust covered with delicate flow lines and globs of metal similar to a melted candle features of the huge explosion that took place in 1947 high above the Sikhote-Alin mountains of Siberia. The delicate flow lines that naturally occurred when the meteorite passed through the earth's atmosphere are only found on pristine iron-nickel meteorites such as this museum quality Sikhote-Alin. Includes stand. Estimate Value $600 - 700 View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 761		Meteorite, Gem Quality Stony. There are basic three types of meteorites, stony, stony-iron (Pallasites) and Iron-Nickel. All three types of these meteorites come from the asteroid belt (except for the Mars, Moon and Vesta meteorites) and formed when our solar system formed some 4.57 billion years ago making them far older than any rocks found on earth. Most stony meteorites are sectioned for collectors and acquiring a fresh gem quality stony meteorite is rare. This gem quality 4 x 2½ x 2" 810 gram (nearly two pounds) was found in the Sahara desert and is designated as a non characterized NWA meteorite. It is magnetic like all stony meteorites that do not come from a planet and is probably an ordinary chondrite meteorite with chondrules. What makes this stony meteorite special is its esthetic shape with regmaglypt types impressions and being more than 90% covered in its original fusion crust with a bit of desert sand in the areas not covered. It looks as fresh as if it fell yesterday being in the top 5% of all meteorites found in the Sahara desert. Estimate Value $400 - 600 View details and enlarged photo	Realized $384