Natural History - Historic Mineral Specimen Collection

An irregular section of angrite meteorite recorded as: Northwest Africa 2999; displayed in a Swiss membrane box and with an inked 'NWA 2999' to one side. 1.73 grams, 20 mm (28.4 grams total, 84 x 59 mm including case)



From the Sahara Desert, North West Africa. Ex Hupé collection, U.S.A. From a Leicestershire, UK, collection.

This specimen fragment formed part of a group of twelve individual dark brown stones totalling 392 grams, each with a thin fusion crust, that were acquired by G. Hupé in August 2004 in Tagounite.

Comprising: granite, collection number 536; two tiger's eye pebbles from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 203; selenite from Sahara Desert, Libya, collection number 349; amethyst from Brazil, collection number 360; arsenopyrite, collection number 471; stained calcite from Ghajn Tuffer, Malta, collection number 41; hematite, collection number 154; chryspoprase from North Transvaal, South Africa, collection number 195; sand crystals from Canterbury Sand Pit, Kent, collection number 173; pyrite from, collection number 343; topaz from Madagascar, collection number 294; and a large number of other mineral samples without collection numbers. 761 grams total, 14-66 mm



Acquired on the UK mineral and fossil market, since 1970. From the historic mineral collection of Richard Valentine Cain, London, UK, thence by descent.

A nickel-iron meteorite (IAB). 30 grams, 37 mm



From a Lincolnshire, UK, collection.

A crater field of roughly 26 craters was found in the vicinity of this crater, which is estimated to date to 4-5 thousand years BP. The age of the meteorite itself is thought to be c.4.5 billion years, formed as part of the development of this solar system. The largest two fragments, the 30.8 ton Gancedo and 28.8 ton El Chaco, are among the heaviest meteorite masses ever recovered on Earth. In 1576, the governor of a province in Northern Argentina commissioned the military to search for a large mass of iron, which it was believed the local people claimed had fallen from the sky and which they used for their weapon production. The expedition discovered a large mass of metal which was assumed to be an iron mine and brought back a few samples, which were described as being of unusual purity. Following the legends, in 1774 Don Bartolomé Francisco de Maguna rediscovered the iron mass. He himself did not believe that the stone had fallen from the sky and assumed that it had formed by a volcanic eruption. However, he sent the samples to the Royal Society of London. In 1990 it became protected by law.