Product Care
STERLING SILVER
Monica Rich Kosann items are created in sterling silver, one of the most beautiful and lustrous of all metals. With proper care, sterling silver will retain its beauty and character for many years to come. All sterling silver contains 92.5% pure silver.
All of our sterling silver is finished with Rhodium, a precious metal that over the past years (as of 2024) has been more expensive than gold. It is a highly valuable silvery-white precious metal and a member of the platinum family. The rhodium helps to protect our sterling silver from tarnishing and allows the new finish of your piece to endure.
To care for our sterling silver jewelry, clean it with a little water, rinse well, and dry thoroughly, gently dabbing the jewelry, rather than rubbing, so as not to affect the rhodium finish. Avoid using any liquid jewelry dips or polishing cloths containing chemicals; the chemicals used can cause the plating to wear off more quickly. We suggest gently touching up your items with a clean, dry cloth to remove fingerprints, etc.
18K GOLD
Monica Rich Kosann gold items are created exclusively in 18K Gold, quite simply to give you more gold in your pieces. It is the ideal for the highest quality fine jewelry. Gold jewelry can be cleaned with a non-abrasive cleaner, and should ideally be stored in a protective box, case or tarnish-resistant pouch. A tarnish-resistant pouch is included with each purchase. Avoid exposing gold jewelry to household bleach.
Special Considerations
A "satin finish" is a subtle matte texture to make its decorative details, gemstones and diamonds stand out more clearly. Take care as this finish can be removed by overzealous cleaning and polishing. The good news is that we can always restore that finish for you should that happen.
VERMEIL
Monica Rich Kosann items from our Locket X Color collection are vermeil. Vermeil (pronounced vur-may) is the highest quality of gold plating, but must be over Sterling Silver to be called Vermeil. Vermeil jewelry has a 2.5 micron thickness (yes, that’s a nice thickness!) over sterling silver, we only use 18k gold in our Vermeil styles.
To care for our jewelry from our Locket X Color collection, we recommend keeping the product dry, avoiding exposure to water, oils, lotions, and jewelry cleaner as that could remove the finish on the enamel.
REPAIRS & PRODUCT LIFE
When you purchase a piece of jewelry from Monica Rich Kosann, you are purchasing a piece to last a lifetime. We stand behind our product, and will fix anything that is fixable, so our customer can continue to enjoy their meaningful piece of jewelry. If something is beyond repair due to an extraordinary occurrence or accident, we will work with the customer to replace the piece, however we do not dispose of a non-fixable piece of jewelry.
In an effort to be as sustainable as possible we participate in a melt program with a local refinery. We will collect any damaged items that are not repairable, any little pieces of scrap metal and a few times a year conduct a melt. The refiner repurposes our scraps to be re-sold as post consumer raw materials back into the market for another manufacturer to use.
For more information about our jewelry quality, please visit Our Quality.