aggregate
Jade
- Also known as
- new jadeKorean jadeAustralian jadeIndian jadeTransvaal jade
- Crystal system
- variable
- Hardness
- 6–7 on the Mohs scale
- Lustre
- greasy
- Colour
- Anything, depending on what is in the box
- Where it forms
- Not applicable — the word does not name a material.
- Chiefly from
- MyanmarChinaNew ZealandGuatemalaand wherever the substitute was quarried
Safety
Depends entirely on what the material actually is. Genuine jade of either kind is safe. Dyed and polymer-impregnated material is common, and some substitutes sold as jade — notably certain serpentines — can carry asbestiform fibres.
Where it comes from
Unascertainable by definition. That is the entry.
Historical use
Only jadeite and nephrite are jade in gemmological usage, and most national trade standards say so. In practice a long list of green stones is sold under the name with a qualifier attached, and the qualifier is what tells you it is not jade: new jade is serpentine, Australian jade is chrysoprase, Indian jade is aventurine, Transvaal jade is grossular garnet, Korean jade is usually serpentine.
Recorded as history and attributed where possible. That a stone was used for something establishes that people used it, not that it worked.
What is attributed to it, and since when
The word carries the reputation of two ancient traditions and is routinely applied to materials belonging to neither. The name itself is a European import: Spanish piedra de ijada, stone of the flank, because Mesoamerican jade was thought to cure kidney complaints. Nephrite has the same origin, from the Greek for kidney.
Described, not endorsed. Dating a claim is not the same as assessing it — but an association that first appears in a book published in 1985 is not an ancient inheritance, whatever the label says. A sincere account of feeling better is compatible with the stone doing nothing — see the placebo effect.
Sold as this, but not
Worth knowing
This entry exists because "jade" is the clearest example of a name doing work that a material cannot.
There is a reliable rule of thumb, and it is useful well beyond this stone: when a gem name comes with a country attached, the country is usually telling you it is not the gem. Australian jade is chrysoprase. Indian jade is aventurine. Transvaal jade is grossular garnet. New jade and Korean jade are serpentine. Swiss lapis is dyed jasper. Oriental amethyst is purple sapphire. German silver contains no silver.
The qualifier is not there to specify a variety. It is there so that the seller has technically not lied.
Identity checked against IMA-CNMNC master list, June 2025.