Can gold and silver be kept together? Gold and silver jewelry are lifetime investments, and since they don’t come cheap, we need to give special care to them.
How you store your jewelry in general matters, as it’s the difference between enjoying a piece of jewelry for decades or making trips to the jeweler to have them buffed and polished.
That’s why it’s essential to know if you can keep your gold and silver jewelry together, and we have the answer to that.
Does gold react with silver?
The question of gold and silver sharing a jewelry box requires us to get into a little chemistry.
Both of the metals don’t react with each other; that’s why you can wear them together, and you won’t notice any damage.
Whether or not you should wear them together is a matter of one’s taste. While gold doesn’t reach with silver, both do react with air. That’s where the concern comes in.
After a few weeks, you’ll notice that silver dulls and, after a while, forms a blackish layer.
That’s caused by oxidation, and when you store such jewelry with other metals, not just gold, a transfer takes place.
Gold, on the other hand, being the most non-reactive metal, it doesn’t reach with oxygen and thus won’t tarnish when in your jewelry box.
The issue thus becomes not about gold reacting with silver, but rather, the transfer of tarnish from the silver to the gold.
That’s because the atoms in the silver are soft Lewis acid and reach equally to soft but large Lewis base. That’s why, for example, silver will tarnish with sulfide.
Can gold and silver be kept together? And why?
With a brief understanding of silver’s reacting to oxidation and the same not happening to gold, we can now explore if the two can be kept together. The answer is yes; you can keep silver and gold together since they are both non-reactive at room temperature.
You can place them on top of each other, and nothing will happen. If you take care of your jewelry, the tarnish won’t appear on the silver either, keeping it and the gold safe.
One also has to look at the payoff of placing both gold and silver jewelry in one place. Scratching is a big issue that arises when you put any two metals together.
That’s why you’re generally advised to keep different metals separately. You wouldn’t want your gold jewelry leaving a mark on the silver one and vice versa because they scratched.
Keeping gold and silver together won’t cause harm if you’re careful handling them to avoid scratching.
Even so, those with larger storage space for jewelry are encouraged to keep the various metals and pieces separately. However, not everyone has that luxury and thus has to make do with having one home for their gold and silver.
Tips for keeping gold and silver together
The best way to store your gold and silver together is to, even in the same space, keep them separated. That’s important for the jewelry that you don’t wear as often, and the silver ends up oxidizing. You don’t want that to affect your gold.
Keep the jewelry from direct sunlight or where there’s heat, which affects the metal itself and can cause it to tarnish faster. Find a cool spot on your dresser where they’re home and protected.
If you don’t like the box that the jewelry came in, you can always purchase another. There are many designs in the market.
For example, you can go for a display case-style jewelry box or for something that’s tiered of you prefer keeping your gold and silver items out of sight.
Here, preference, the collection size, and how much space you have will determine what you opt for.
You must get a jewelry case because leaving jewelry in their cotton pouches or polythene bags affects how they’ll age.
Conclusion
People place different values on things. One would be perfectly okay keeping all their jewelry in one place and detangle them when they need something.
Another would take the opposite route, making sure every piece has its place.
Wherever you stand, remember to do what’s best for you and the longevity of your investments. For more jewelry metal posts, please visit this page for more.
Tiger is a fashion&jewelry lover. He is also a fashion jewelry manufacturer that help thousands of small business to grow and also do business with some big fashion jewelry brands. He is a truly metal expert and he will share some information you are looking for.