[meteorite-list] Re: NWA's, "Dealers", Science, & NomCom

From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Nov 25 10:53:30 2004
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20041125104442.03354ec0_at_gsvaresm02.er.usgs.gov>

At 10:39 AM 11/25/2004, Herbert Raab wrote:

>Jeff Grossman wrote:
>
> > Now if somebody wants to call a new meteorite he buys in Morocco
> > NWA 5434, which is not allowed under our rules, he would have to
> > go the extra step of actually faking a specimen number.
>
>I bought a stony meteorite from a box that was sitting benath
>a Moroccan dealse's desk with fossils at the Munich show last
>year. I recently got it back from a lab saying that it's paired
>with NWA xxxx. Now, they said, there is so much NWA xxx around
>that they won't bother to assign new number to my specimen. In
>that case, I would have been forced to "fake" a specimen number...
>:-(
>
> Best greetings
> Herbert "I don't want to fake" Raab
Well, under the scheme I outlined you would have three choices.

1) Keep the specimen under the name the seller told you, but without a
specimen number. You can call your rock whatever you want for that matter,
but you shouldn't sell or distribute it under any name unless it's really
known to be that meteorite. Neither should the guy who sold it to you.

2) Get it classified and named properly.

3) Fake a specimen number.


Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman
Chair, Meteorite Nomenclature Committee (Meteoritical Society)
US Geological Survey
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
Phone: (703) 648-6184 fax: (703) 648-6383
Received on Thu 25 Nov 2004 10:53:25 AM PST