Pennies From Heaven: Meteorite For Sale in Çorum

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 7 March 2020)

money for meteors click here for a 2015 TNT report about
NASA encouraging a meteor hunt in Bingöl province.


                 The last time you'll ever see it for free.

In Alaca district of Çorum province there is a village of 12 homes
named Gerdekkaya, where farmer Mutlu Yılmaz lives.  While Yılmaz
was preparing his chickpea field for harvesting in April last year, he
tried to move a large rock out of the way.  The odd-looking rock, though,
was too heavy for Yılmaz to lift.  Finally, with the help of some friends,
he brought the 68-kilogram (150 lbs) rock to his home.

Yılmaz broke off a piece of the rock and, through a relative, he was able
to send it to a university in the USA, where it was analyzed and
determined to be a meteorite.  Learning this, Yılmaz put the rock in a
bank safety deposit box and looked through his field with a detector
for other meteorites, but without success.


                    "Hmmm, looks like ET's footprint"

Çorum's provincial culture and tourism office got wind of Yılmaz's
meteorite and asked to have the rock displayed in a museum in Çorum
city.  Yılmaz agreed to a temporary exhibition at the museum and a
month and a half ago the meteorite went on display.  In scientific
literature the rock is now known as the 'Gerdekkaya Meteorite' and
it is Turkey's third largest, with an age estimated to be at least 4,000
years. 

Now, though, Yılmaz has got his meteorite back from the museum and
he's trying to sell it.  A group from Russia has shown interest and Yılmaz
explained that "there are many people abroad who are interested in
meteorites so we want to sell ours.  The Russian group offered $68,000
but we know it's worth much more so we didn't accept that offer.  Of
course, our aim is to sell the meteorite to a buyer who knows its value."