Fall Date of the VERAMIN Mesosiderite

In the Catalogue of Meteorites (Graham et al., 1985) the fall date of the Veramin mesosiderite is erroneously reported as May 1880. The correct date is 18 April 1880, based on the detailed account of Ward (1901) and Iranian documents.

The fall of Veramin was first reported by F. Dietzch, a German mining engineer, who received a piece from the Shah of Iran in early May 1880. This date was seemingly adopted as the fall date thereafter, although Dietzch did not imply that himself. According to Ward (1901) there was a cardboard label beside the meteorite giving an account of the fall in Farsi (this label is now missing). In translation, Ward (1901) gives the 8th of Ja­madi-ul-aval A. H. 1298 as the date of the fall. On the basis of the correlative calendar of Iran, this date is equivalent to 8 April 1881 which is an obvious contradiction to the fact that Dietzch's report was published in March 1881. Fortunately, a clarifying clue comes from the diary of the Shah's consultant, M. H. Sanie­o-doleh, which mentions the fall of Veramin among the events of 1297. If we correct the fall date to the 8th of Jamadi-ul-aval A. H. 1297, we obtain the fall date of Veramin as 18 April 1880. This is the date that should be used as a clue to the orbital parameters.

The main mass of Veramin has been kept in the Golestan Palace, Tehran, since 1880.