[meteorite-list] Meteorite Reward Still Up for Grabs

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:45 2004
Message-ID: <200303052019.MAA02039_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://icderry.icnetwork.co.uk/news/localnews/page.cfm?objectid=12698931&method=full

Meteorite Reward Still Up for Grabs
icDerry (United Kingdom)
March 4, 2003

A SCOTTISH-based meteorite dealer says he's still not received a genuine
piece of the space rock that blazed across the Donegal skyline last month.

And Rob Elliott from Fife-based company, Fernlea Meteorites, says a
fragment of rock he received last week from a Letterkenny jeweller also proved
a false alarm.

Mr. Elliott has put up a £20,000 reward for anyone who can provide him with
part of a meteorite thought to have landed in Donegal three weeks ago.

Despite receiving hundreds of samples from across Ireland, Scotland and
England, he told the 'Journal' last night none were what he was after.

"The reward is still there for anyone who sends me a genuine piece. The money
is in a safe just waiting to be handed to someone," he said.

That money won't, however, be going to one Letterkenny jeweller who thought
he'd stumbled across a piece of the much sought-after meteorite.

For Rob says a small object posted to him by shop owner Marcus Griffin had
been tested and was nothing more than a piece of magnesia metal.

"The rock arrived from Marcus last Saturday and initially I was very excited
when I opened it because it looked like the genuine article.

"But we examined it closely and when we grinded it we discovered that it
wasn't the real thing," he said.

Two weeks ago, Marcus vowed he wouldn't sell the piece of rock for love nor
money.

He said: "I wouldn't sell it for the world, I just won't be accepting money for it. I
am a collector and I intend to hold on to it."

Rob says he though Marcus' reluctance to part with the object meant that when
he received it he was convinced it was exactly what he was after.

"I had heard he was reluctant to part with the piece of rock he had discovered.
So when it arrived here I though this could be it," added Rob.

Mr. Elliott urged people not to give up on the hunt for a piece of the meteorite.

And he said history shows that it can take as long as three months before
someone comes forward with a genuine piece of rock "Unless it's totally
overshot the land in Co. Donegal there is a piece out there and the reward
awaits the person who brings it to me," he said.
 
Received on Wed 05 Mar 2003 03:19:06 PM PST