Greetings all - first post to this excellent site. Wish I'd known about it years ago!
I picked up these two from a well-rated auction house,that described them as "excellent specimens" of what I assumed to be the mis-spelled Campo del Cielo fall. They do not look at all like meteorites to me: no fusion crust or regmaglypts. Bigger concern is what looks to me like a vein of hydrothermal quartz in one, and a parallel seam of some sedimentary composite on the other. They are strongly magnetic, and feel about as heavy as iron, though could be hematite or some other ore. And they have a kind of rough parallel fracture.
Interestingly, several pieces showed up at another auction house, with essentially the same description. Is it possible that these are authentic, from Argentina or some other fall? Is it possible that someone is cleverly putting fakes on different sites to get what they can? I'm prepared to believe that it was a simple, optimistic error by someone who inherited a rock collection or something - but both auction houses say that they are confident of authenticity, despite lack of a CoA.
Any advice welcome. Thanks!
I picked up these two from a well-rated auction house,that described them as "excellent specimens" of what I assumed to be the mis-spelled Campo del Cielo fall. They do not look at all like meteorites to me: no fusion crust or regmaglypts. Bigger concern is what looks to me like a vein of hydrothermal quartz in one, and a parallel seam of some sedimentary composite on the other. They are strongly magnetic, and feel about as heavy as iron, though could be hematite or some other ore. And they have a kind of rough parallel fracture.
Interestingly, several pieces showed up at another auction house, with essentially the same description. Is it possible that these are authentic, from Argentina or some other fall? Is it possible that someone is cleverly putting fakes on different sites to get what they can? I'm prepared to believe that it was a simple, optimistic error by someone who inherited a rock collection or something - but both auction houses say that they are confident of authenticity, despite lack of a CoA.
Any advice welcome. Thanks!
Last edited:
