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Carving Pendant

How do we determine the quality and value of jade stone? Is there any test that we can do?

I have been given a carved jade pendant from China but I'm not sure if it's genuine or fake.

Unless the seller somehow certifies in writing that the "jade" you are buying is either nephrite or jadeite, you'd have a hard time figuring out whether it is or isn't...

It is also rather difficult to get a definitive analysis of what you have. There are commercial labs that do SEM-EDS testing, which can nail it down pretty close - but that requires at least a small chip of the material to do. You'd have to "sacrifice" some of each piece's value to provide the material for testing. (What if it turns out to be jadeite or nephrite...?)

The trouble is that you have very few resellers here that will give you a certificate, even if it is real jade.

A higher quality jade is transluscent and mostly green, without much vains of white clouds in it. The lighter the stone, the less 'pure' jade it is. It is also very shiny, and very hard.

Hope it helps...

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