Pennies From Heaven?

New York auction house Bonhams just completed the sale of a largish collection of meteorites. The space rocks were drawn from a number of sources and not all of them sold. But there were some unusual pieces in the collection. Among the objects was a mailbox - hit by a meteorite in 1984.

The pieces were drawn from collections across the world and many examples are richly coloured and intricately patterned, some bearing gemstones.

A piece priced at $1.1m (£0.53m) did not sell but an iron meteorite from Siberia fetched $123,000 (£60,000).

And a US mailbox hit by a meteorite in 1984 sold for $83,000 (£40,000).

"The results were stronger than anticipated with a near-perfect result," Bonhams meteorite specialist Claudia Florian said after the sale.

Bonhams, she added, hoped to sell the unsold lots "in the next several days".

Rocks from space = money. Who knew?