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How do we guarantee that our Moon and Mars rocks are authentic?

We buy suspected stones directly from the finders, followed by an extensive and time consuming process of research and classification by some of the best scientific researchers who utilize cutting-edge planetary science analytical instrumentation at very few facilities worldwide (for example, Washington State University in Seattle). If a Lunar or Martian rock is confirmed, all the classification details will be submitted to the single scientific organization naming and publishing accounts of every scientifically authenticated meteorite in the world, the
Meteoritical Society. The Society assigns a name or number to each and adds it to the official list of their Meteoritical Bulletin, which accounts for all known authenticated and named meteorites.

Why most of the Lunar and Mars meteorites have numbers instead of names?

Most of the Lunar and Martian meteorites are discovered in the Sahara desert. Since the early 1990s, scientists and meteorite hunters have made many discoveries in the hot deserts. The Sahara desert in North-Africa has proven especially productive.

From frequent finds of asteroid rubble to the rarest classes of planetary meteorites, many have been found in these areas since then. Over 1000 meteorite hunters in the Sahara alone, mostly desert nomads, earn a portion of their livelihood searching for meteorites.

Normally, a meteorite find or observed fall is named after the closest
village near the find location, as part of the approval process. With the desert meteorites, however, this system is unwieldy since several finds may be from the same productive area, or the location may be so deep in the desert that no settlement or specific place names are conveniently near. In other cases, the actual site of the find may not have been revealed by the nomads at all. For some of these reasons, the Meteoritical Society has established the procedure of assigning numbers to these meteorites. For example, using the prefix "NWA" with a number for finds in Northwest Africa.

So far, the Northwest Africa series have been assigned in ascending order, starting with NWA 001 and has now surpassed the number NWA 7000. However, most of these meteorites are the relatively common types while only a relative few are the rare Lunar and Martian meteorites, and several other oddities.

Is it legal to own meteorites?

Yes.  Meteorites arrive to earth independently and may be owned and collected like any other rock, mineral or fossil by the lucky finders in these deserts.  Since the Apollo mission was a public mission, moon rocks collected on the surface of the moon are national treasures of the people of the United States of America.  Moon rocks that arrive by natural means independently of the space program, which are found by individual desert hunters are private property and legal to own and collect.

Is it a good investment for my money?

Due to the lucrative nature an financial hardships of the desert nomads and meteorite hunters, those productive deserts have been scoured to the point that finding meteorites, including Lunar and Martian meteorites, in these is much more difficult than it was in the past years.

Finds are increasingly infrequent as each time a meteorite is found, it is not replenished in the sands. Most of the finds during the past years have disappeared into private and museum collections. We believe
Now is the best time to buy such rarities as the situation will only become more difficult as time goes on and less material turns up.  The
fascination of ownership of a piece of another planet is also catching on as more people discover this formerly little-known possibility in today’s connected world!