Moon meteor worth the buy?

[ToukieToucan]

So I was browsing on a site selling meteors and other stuff and saw that you could buy a little bit of moon rock (10 mg) from the NWA 4881 moonmeteorite, it is provided with an authenticity certificate and a nice moon themed plastic box. The meteor is about half a centimeter long and is 10 mg.

is it worth €45?

Edited February 29, 2016 by ToukieToucan

[Evanitis]

Only you can tell. Who else could estimate how much do you want to own a moon-rock, or how much money does worth for you.

It's irrelevant if I say that I wouldn't pay €4.5 for it.

[ToukieToucan]

7 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

Only you can tell. Who else could estimate how much do you want to own a moon-rock, or how much money does worth for you.

It's irrelevant if I say that I wouldn't pay €4.5 for it.

Right, but I'm not sure how much a normal price would be for them, so if multiple people would say its a rip off/great deal I could take that into account.

[Kerbart]

I'm going to be a bit cynical here. TLDR: no.

For starters, 10 mg and half a centimeter long? With an average density for rocks of 2.65 g/cm³ that translates to 0.0038 cm³. Throw in a length of 0.5 cm and the average cross-section is going to be 0.0075 cm². If this “rock” is 1mm wide it's going to be less than .1mm thick. That’s not a rock. That’s a splinter.

Then, “authenticity certificate” always sound fishy to me. Does the certificate have a certificate? Certified by who? It’s easy to make a certificate. But unless it’s from NASA or maybe the US Geological Survey I doubt it means that much; and I doubt these bureaus are in the business of certifying moon meteorite splinters.

If I'm paying it needs to be a real ROCK. Or at least a pebble.

[p1t1o]

Commodity-wise, it's probably a plausible price, but for me it's only as valuable as the "authenticity certificate".

Can it be backed up by a 3rd party?

Unless you have access to a mass-spec, then it might be worthwhile just for the fun of doing it yourself

[ToukieToucan]

Heres the link to the page:

 

http://www.debarnsteenspecialist.nl/maan-meteoriet-18522242.html

 

it is in dutch but the main info has been give in my original post. 3 pictures there.

 

You can buy a signed authenticity certificate for €1 extra which makes it look a bit shady.

 

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=45805

 

this is from the meteoritical society forum, some pictures have the same box as the website above.

Edited February 29, 2016 by ToukieToucan

[Mikki]

You might be able to find meteorites by naked eye in the nature. You just have to know exactly what you are looking for, sure it takes some time.
 

[ToukieToucan]

6 minutes ago, Mikki said:

You might be able to find meteorites by naked eye in the nature. You just have to know exactly what you are looking for, sure it takes some time.
 

Moon rocks are a different story.

[RizzoTheRat]

The certificate says by the standards of the London Meteorological Society so it might be worth contacting them to check if it's a genuine site.

[lajoswinkler]

The site seemed ok until I saw it sells those cheap ass octahedral fluorites for more than 4 €. I'd be careful. Contact the people on the certificate form.