Kevin M. said:

I am  getting ready to ship out a violin for my niece. I turned it up several times to 443 now and it seems to be staying in tune.

First question is should I even send it tuned or release the tension on the strings.

It is recommended to loosen the strings slightly but I can logically see that there are disadvantages in doing that as well. The post can move if the package gets dropped. I suppose that if you package it well enough it can stay tuned without much risk of damage. One would hope that the instrument doesn't get thrown around too much on shipping.

Second question is should it be tuned to 440 instead of 443.  Her father will be getting her lessons and I am not sure if they will tube to 443 or 440.  I don't want her getting used to hearing 443 and then finding out that it is wrong.

We are talking about slight differences and your nieces teacher will tune it for her anyway so I wouldn't even think about it. Usually the small instruments sound much better with a little added tension so leave it at 443 imho.

Maybe I'm just driving myself crazy