Could Any One Make Out The Markings And Identify This Item Unknown Stone/gem

[Freckwreck33]

I was given this by a friend, he told me he thought it could be a meteorite, I took it to the gem lab to get tested but couldn't afford the fee at the time but they gave me their opinion of what it could be and they said black jadeite. After looking into it further I noticed there were markings and what seems like lettering of some sort. Any ideas? 

[jasong]

It's not a meteorite and there isn't any lettering on it. Where was it found? Did it come from British Columbia or California by chance? I'd guess a serpentine cobble based on nothing but a brief visual inspection of photos. The indentions are likely from differential surface erosion in a river, which means it had a bunch of softer inclusions in it, which serpentine often does.

I very highly doubt it's jadeite unless by some rare instance it came from Myanmar or maybe Central America. It could be nephrite jade though (this is chemically and mineralogically different from jadeite, not the same thing), which is similar in many ways to serpentine. Black jade is just very, very dark green jade. So it will still show translucency of a dark green when shining a very powerful flashlight on an edge. Meaning - not perfectly opaque, but again very strong LED flashlight is needed. Black serpentine might or might not show translucency depending on it's composition, but it's going to scratch with the tip of a pocket knife whereas black nephrite won't scratch with a pocket knife.

In general beyond that, identifying rocks that are highly river worn such as yours is not really something that can be done by photos. You need to do tests on your own. Hardness, density, opacity are what I'd start with.

[Steve Herschbach]

Can't do much to help people that won't respond to questions. Post one day, gone the next, what's the point? But thanks for trying Jason, good response.