Nephrite found on Oregon coast this year

[Snorlax]

Hey folks, found this nice deep green almost black nephrite from the Oregon coast near the mouth of the Rogue river. Brought it to an gemologist and they claim it to be nephrite.
What are y’alls thoughts on it? Was the only piece found that trip.

 

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[smokeythecat]

More than likely it is. Very nice find.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Really nice find! I'd put that in a tumbler and polish it up.
Jim

 

[IAMZIM]

I have some friends that used to live on the Eel river in California, they had found a basketball sized chunk of that and displayed it in their garden here in Twin Bridges Mt. Someone stole it while they were on vacation once. Keep an eye on your "good" finds lol! That's a great piece! I hope to find some jade one day too!

 

[Snorlax]

Thanks for y’all’s thoughts and replies, I am pretty proud of it.
Also, I’m really sorry to hear someone stole such a large piece.. that’s scummy.

 

[GB1]

nice find

 

[Snorlax]

So I know nephrite has some value (not like jadeite though) and can go for a nice sum
of money. Is there a way I could possibly get this stone appraised? I know there are many many factors in value.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Nice piece. Cut it up and make something out of it. I got a piece of Alaskan jade (nephrite) from a friend and made a little rabbit pendant for his daughter. The stuff is really tough. Not hard, but tough. Gary

 

[Clay Diggins]

Yeah Nephrite will chew up a wheel quicker than anything but corundum. Toughest natural material there is despite being relatively soft. I've carved many hundreds of pounds of the stuff and not much else cuts slower. Tough stuff to polish too.

Value is all about color and clarity. You would have to polish or slice the piece you found to determine if it has any semi precious value. From the picture it has fairly good color but green is the most common color. If it has black spots the value goes way down and if there are yellow spots it depends on the shade of yellow and how the yellow compliments the green. If it has white streaks it's probably best to keep it in your garden or on a windowsill.

There is quite a bit of nephrite along that coast. It could also be one of several more common minerals that look like jade. Diopside, Clinochlore, Antigorite and Actinolite are also found in that region and are very commonly mistaken for jade.

Hardness and specific gravity tests can help determine if it's one of the more common massive green minerals listed above but in the long run all these minerals are rarely found in a pure enough state to provide positive tests. Generally testing in these type minerals are better at telling you what it isn't rather than a positive answer as to what it is.

It really does take an expert to value individual pieces of jade but if you look at a lot of jade and compare sales prices you can get a pretty good idea. eBay is a good place to get a start on that type of education. You can determine relative values by the sold price - sometimes.

 

[Moesia]

It is impossible to know from the photo you have provided if that i nephrite. Neither is by just looking at it in person. Many things are black...