jade's utilitarain importance diminished but its symbolic value never dimmed .Even today, modern man,especially in the Far East , uses jade amulets as good luck charm and jade doughnuts are probably the most popular cut for this stone.

The Discovery
    The discovery that jade was acctually two separate minerals belonging to two separate families with two separate sets of physical characteristics was made in the late

1800's when the science of geology had made significant progress. At the time ,all opaque green stones were loosely classified as jade until the development of crystallography. At that time mineralogist began classifying gemstones based on the mineral they were composed from and how those minerals crystallized .In the process they discovered that despite a fairly similar appearance ,the two kinds of jade-jadeite and nephrite -accually belonged to two different mineral families Nephrite already existed as the name for the old type of jade and the other kind was termed jadeite by the scientists.

So what is thedifference?
   Well, to start with ,although both jadeite and nephrite are based on silica ,the secondary mineral in nephrite is magnesium and in jadeite is aluminium. Also nephrite gets its green colour from trace amountsof iron, while jadeite's verdure is due to chromium ,

the same element that colour emeralds,It must be pointed out though,that likediamonds,both varieties of jade in thier pure from are white .However ,unlike fine diamond ,jade is at best semi translucent while more commonly it is opaque . Impurities yield other colours.In nephrite these include beige,yellow,blue or black among other colours, while in jadeite, the range is blue -green,lavender,white,orange and red .Compare to nephrite ,jadeite's hues are more beatiful,the colours more vivid and this is especially true of the greens.it is mainly due to this that jewelers value jadeite more than nephrite,but of course,there nephrite,but of course,there are other more compelling reasons as well.

 One of the chief differences between nephrite and jadeite is the occurence. As with all other gemstones,rarity is one of the main factors that govern value.Nephrite and abadantly found in literally thousands of occurances and therefore nearly every ancient facts ,until the1800's , the isolationist Chinese use only nephrite as jadiite occured outside their boundaries (in Burma). Jadeite on the other hand occurs only in seven locations throughout the world .These are Myanmar (Burma),California ,Guatemala,Russia (near Lake Baikal ),japan and Switzerland. Apart from colours,there are other differences in appearance.Nephrite 's crystal pattern can be seen with the naked eye. it consist of long slender crystal stacked together to from a mat likt sheet.Jadeite's crystal pattern on the other hand ,can barely be seen as it is microcrystalline .Nephrite feels soapy or oily to the touch ,while jadeite feels pearly or satiny .Also ,jadeite always feels feels warm to the touch while nephrite feels cool.

 Nephrite gives a hollow ring when bounce together, while the same action will produce a sound akin to the clashing of billiard balls from jadeite.Also,jadite gives the impression of depth when viewed , unlike nephrite .Their mineral families are different too, nephrite belongs to the amphilbole group and jadeite is part of the pyroxene group of minerals. Speaking of minerals and mineral structure, there are two physical characticteristics,which distinguish the two minerals from each other.Jadeite is harder than nephrite and will scratch it while nephrite is together than jadeite and therefore will not shatter as easily as the letter.The surface fracture of jadeite is granular, while that of nephrite is splintery.The specific gravity of the two stones is different too with jadeite being the heavier with a specific gravity of 3.24-3.40 while nephrite is a relatively lighter 2.90-3.10 The ultimate difference though is decided by the two-