February 15, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

I've recently been putting my darkroom back
into operation after a hiatus of a couple of
years.

I just made prints on some paper I bought
before I moved my darkroom. I marked the box
November, 2002. So the paper is likely just
about four years old. (It's 16x20 sheets of
glossy material. I had about a quarter of a
box left, judging by the weight, maybe ten or
fifteen sheets.)

At first I thought the paper had died,
because the first few prints were flat and
had lifeless blacks. But once I found the
correct exposure the prints were fine.
Perfectly dense black, pristine white
borders, a nice tonality in the skin tones.

So, although I am surprised, I've found that
MGW will last three or four years minimum in
very ordinary storage (room temperature,
indoors).

I did not make any change in my usual
developer, either (i.e., no added bromide).

regards,
--le