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.

Corrosion of your precious metal valuables can occur in a number of ways. In order to efficiently prevent tarnish, you need to understand the causes behind the corrosion process and what is really going on.

Metals can be classified as either noble or non-noble. As far as corrosion goes, we are more concerned with non-noble metals, which require refining to be useful. However, nature is always seeking to return these metals back to their original existence as ores, oxides, etc. which is where the corrosion kicks in.

As we know from our previous newsletters, air polluted with tarnish-causing (H2S, NOX, SO2, HCl, O3) is the main cause of corrosion. Atmospheric corrosion occurs when such air pollution chemically reacts with the metal surface of your silver jewelry or other valuables in an attempt to return the metal back to the way it normally exists in nature. So, it is nature and chemistry that causes corrosion, not water and temperature as you may have been misinformed. It is worth noting, however, that water and temperature can accelerate the rate of corrosion so be sure your metal valuables are in a cool, dry place during storage.

In order to properly protect your silver and jewelry, you must use anti-tarnish packaging that not only prevents contact between corrosive gases in the air and the surfaces of your metal valuables but eliminates these gases entirely. No gases, no contact, no corrosion!

There are many types of silver storage and jewelry packaging items available today. While their purpose may be the same, quality and efficiency are what separate the best from the rest. But do we really need tarnish prevention packaging? Retailers say yes, and they require it from their vendors! The trusted storage that retailers prefer is based on proven long-term, non-toxic protection that successfully prevents tarnish.

So how important is the tarnish prevention component of your jewelry packaging? It's extremely important because environmental corrosion is ever increasing and so are the challenges of keeping silver and other metal valuables from tarnishing under these worsening conditions. The rising amounts of H2S and other tarnish causing gases in the air affect all levels of the retail supply chain from jewelry manufacturing plants overseas to warehouses, safes, and display cases here in the U.S., right down to customers at home. For retailers, tarnished merchandise costs them money through vendor and customer returns and lost sales, especially in highly polluted regions like Asia and India where a lot of silver jewelry is manufactured. Retailers simply cannot afford to lose potential sales because their merchandise is not up to par.