Great article! Yeah, Sure it happens, and it shouldn't! I don't see why institutions need to be so cagey, pretty well all institutions exchange material with dealers, it goes with the territory. And it's clear they all have their 'favorite dealers', but I am sure anyone that came to them with the right material would get let in the door.
Bottom line - Any so called scientist that requests/grinds off labels to disguise important information should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves... Best, Mark -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 14 September 2004 13:39 To: Meteorite List Subject: Re: RE: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Histories Hi All, True story: Dealer B gets specimens from Dealer A. Notices an area ground off the surface of all the specimens. Dealer B gets more specimens from Dealer A. Again notices spot ground off on all pieces. Dealer B calls Dealer A and asks for an explanation and is told that the pieces are coming from a large institutional collection where the specimens are individually numbered. Instead of chemically dissolving off the painted specimen numbers, Dealer A simply ground them off with a bench grinder because it was much faster. Why would the numbers be removed and the collection history prior to Dealer A hidden? It was by request of the institutional collection. The institutional collection wanted to keep the fact that they were releasing specimens from the other dealers and collector in order to avoid being bombarded by trade and purchase requests. I doubt that this story is an isolated incident. For your reading enjoyment, I have addressed collection history in my Acc retion Desk articles at The Meteorite Times. Here are a couple of them: Leaving a Paper Trail http://www.meteoritetimes.com/Back_Links/2002/October/Accretion_Desk.htm Lucky Numbers: Specimen Labels as License Plates from the Past http://www.meteoritetimes.com/Back_Links/2002/November/Accretion_Desk.ht m Cheers, Martin ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
