Jade is usually thought of as a green stone, but it has also been found in lavender, yellow, red, and blue. In ancient China, jade was considered more valuable than gold and was used to create intricate carvings and jewelry.

In prehistoric times Jade was made into arms and tools because of its hardness.

Jade has been known for 7000 years, but in France in 1863, it was found to consist of two distinct minerals. Jadeite and Nephrite. The term jade is used to describe both.

Jadeite and Nephrite come in green and other colors. It may have a color streak of white. Jadeite has a Moh’s hardness of 6.5 – 7 and Nephrite has a Moh’s hardness of 6 – 6.5.

Jadeite is generally off-white, grayish white, and green. It can also be brown, yellowish brown, orange-yellow, reddish orange, lilac, blue-gray. The most valuable is emerald green. The most frequent color is semitransparent to nearly opaque white. It comes mainly from northern Burma, but also from Japan, Tibet, Guatemala, and California. It has a wide range of values.

Nephrite is more common and found in Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, Russia, Taiwan the U.S. and in small quantities almost everywhere. It is less valued than Jadeite. It is found as opaque and translucent in a less lively green. The color can be dark green to blackish, gray, grayish white, or blue-gray. It may contain brown, yellow brown, or orange streaks of iron oxide.

Indian jade is a whitish pale-green to green aventurine (mainly quartz), but it lacks the properties of true jade. Others similar to jade are Korean jade and Transvaal jade, but are not jade either.