What is vermeil, this is a very common question I get being in the jewelry industry. The short answer is vermeil is sterling silver covered with gold usually 14k. Vermeil is an art of jewelry making that has been around since the 18^th century. Today’s Federal Regulations basically determine what is vermeil by making sure it is coated or plated on all significant surfaces with gold or gold alloy of not less approximately 1/10000ths of an inch of gold. This is most often done by a process called electrolysis which uses a direct current to drive the appropriate reaction.

Often jewelers will put vermeil in the title of their items however we here at jpwjewelry know many do not understand what vermeil is, so most of our vermeil items say both sterling silver and GP gold plated in the titles instead of vermeil. Vermeil is a wonderful type of jewelry having the best of both worlds in silver and gold. However  vermeil’s popularity has dropped in recent years simply because most people prefer all silver or the cheaper standard gold plating usually with a copper or alloy base. The reason being if your warring traditional vermeil or standard gold plated jewelry there really is not a lot of difference in the way they look. The only long lasting advantage to vermeil is it tends to last a little longer then traditional gold plated jewelry, but it also can tarnish like regular gold plated jewelry, and it has a higher price tag so there is a trade off. I personally would recommend traditional gold plating, but that is just my preference as we do carry both traditional gold plated jewelry and vermeil plated jewelry.  Anyway I hope you enjoyed this weeks post on what is vermeil if you have any questions please reply to this post, and I will do my best to answer.

Looking to buy some great vermeil and traditional plated jewelry click here.

James