One of the most common issues that retailers and manufacturers of silver and silver jewelry experience, is tarnishing of their silver when stored and/or shipped in their boxes. Many of these companies find out after the fact, that their packaging, be it ring boxes, bracelet boxes, etc., is causing the silver to tarnish rapidly.

So what is the answer to this, when so much jewelry packaging is manufactured with high sulfur content? Obviously, the best solution to this problem is to only use boxes or packaging that is free of corrosive gases such as sulfur and chlorine. However, this is not always so easy to do, especially when alot of packaging is being produced in Asia in highly corrosive environments. Additionally, the adhesives used are often high in sulfur content, hence, you should request that your box supplier use only acrylic adhesives, since they are generally sulfur free. Even if your packaging supplier states their packaging is free of corrosives, as a precaution, it is always a good idea to include some sort of anti tarnishpackaging or anti tarnish paper. Another option is to isolate the silver from the box by placing the silver item in a anti tarnish bag and then place the bag in the box or packaging being used.

Lastly, many manufacturers will use platings, be it rhodium, e-coating, etc., to aid in tarnish prevention but this also has its drawbacks. One of the most common is when an item needs to be repaired, sized, etc., and then polished. This process will result in the plating or coating being removed which then creates an entire host of other problems...problems that we will look at in our next post...stay tuned!