🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Need help identifying a real versus fake Sericho Pallasite.

[thebrits615]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice and expertise regarding a Sericho Pallasite meteorite I found for sale. The asking price is $700.00, and it's encased in acrylic to prevent rust. The listing price is over double this, but the seller is willing to come down as I am a repeat customer. While the piece looks impressive, I've heard that there can be fakes out there, and I want to make sure I'm not being tricked and that this is a good deal.

The seller mentioned that they got it from a meteor dealer and they actually sell various meteorites online. However, I'm still a bit cautious when spending large sums of money and would appreciate any guidance on how to verify its authenticity.

Is there any way to tell if this Sericho Pallasite is genuine? Are there specific signs or tests I can look for or perform pre-purchase? Also, is $700.00 a reasonable price for a piece like this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

 

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[Red-Coat]

Welcome to Tnet.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy home-testing route to verify that specimen, especially not if encased in acrylic (which is generally both a good idea and widely practised). At minimum, the olivine should be highly-shocked and that would be readily visible with a low-power lens. Authenticity largely depends on the reputation of the seller unless paperwork exists linking a particular specimen to laboratory test results. All I could say is that it looks good to me and pallasites are not easy to fake (at least not Main Group Pallasites).

The only so-called pallasite I’m aware of that has been faked in any quantity is ‘Shirokovsky’ which, although it has a back-story claiming it to be linked to a 1956 fireball, is not a meteorite and all specimens were likely faked to trade on that story. This one from my collection (note that it’s not a particularly well-executed fake, underlining the difficulty of producing a convincing specimen):

Price-wise, for Sericho, it has traditionally traded at around $10 per gram or less, but finds subsequent to the initial mass(es) have progressively pushed the price down. Despite that, some sellers are still hoping to get unrealistically high prices. The initial mass revealed to a dealer in 2017 weighed 107 Kg and, within two weeks, more than a ton of it appeared. Even today, villagers in the area continue to find additional pieces which are usually more than 50 Kg and the total weight recovered to date is at least 2.8 tons.

For those reasons, many dealers have slashed prices and bargains can be had from time to time. For example, this 220g specimen is available for $460 (reduced from $923):

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/150...MI8qvPl8vjhwMV8JpQBh2z3xH_EAQYASABEgLX8fD_BwE

Hope that helps.