Hello Folks...

I am a jewelry manufacturing consultant in the Far East. I have come across a factory here in China that has a severe discoloration problem on their 14K vermeil plating items. It is a very dark and vibrant mix of color of purple and deep blue. It is sporatic across the items. I have read about Purple of Cassius on gold plating of circuit boards and am wondering if this could be the problem. I also read that a possible cause is tin chloride and/or stannic acid....possibly contaminating the gold bath from maybe bad Chinese solder on some of the items. Does anyone have any knowledge on this condition of discolor? I will have pictures of the affected items by tomorrow.