What is Rhodium?

Rhodium plating is a huge upgrade over jewelry not plated with rhodium. Sterling silver that is not plated with rhodium has a tendency to tarnish more quickly. Within our Jewelryland catalog, many of our pieces of sterling silver jewelry have a thin layer of rhodium over the silver to help resist tarnishing. This is a very expensive process, but one we find really makes our customer’s happy – and their jewelry looking great for a long time!!

More about Rhodium (Rh)

Rhodium is an element, Rh, that is silvery-white and hard. It is one of the rarest and most valuable precious metals. It is resistant to corrosion and does not oxidize. For this reason, sterling silver is often plated with a thin layer of rhodium on top of the silver to give it a shiny silvery-white color to insulate the jewelry and help it to resist tarnish.

Rhodium, which is one of rarest elements in the Earth's crust, is found in platinum ores in South Africa and North America. Rhodium is rarely used in its pure form in jewelry because it has a high melting point, poor malleability, and because it is so expensive - about 8 times the price of gold.