An Acetone bath has always worked well for me to remove PVC and minor junk from coins. Some say that Xylene will do things that Acetone won't. Some also say that Xylene is best for copper. What else is it better at? I wanted to try Xylene but for some reason it only comes in gallons in my area. I'll guess that's to keep stupid folks from buying it to huff/sniff. I don't know. A gallon can is way more than I would use and would not be very handy to pour small amounts. Please give me your thoughts.
I've tried both. I've found that Xylene doesn't work any better than acetone and leaves an oily sheen. I stick with acetone for all metals.
I used to put a cup of Xylene in my tank before I raced. That is some super volatile stuff. Just be careful when you do use it.
I use acetone to remove organic contaminants from silver and nickel coinage, but not copper. While I can't attest to it from personal experience, I have read here that acetone can discolor copper coinage. While our silver and nickel coinage is alloyed with copper, I have not seen any discoloration when using acetone. I have used xylene after trying acetone unsuccessfully. There are contaminants that acetone will not touch. As for xylene in quarts, I get it locally (central Florida) from Home Depot.
Xylene is mostly used in the painting industry. So is acetone. But there are several paints that acetone simply won't dissolve or clean up, but xylene will. To a degree you're right, if acetone will dissolve and or remove a substance, then xylene isn't any better in that case. But there many things that acetone will not dissolve, and xylene will. In those cases xylene is absolutely better. It is the better choice to use on copper coins because like it or not, believe it or not, acetone will sometimes, not always but sometimes, cause copper coins to turn colors after it is used on them.
I use acetone. I transfer some into a small plastic travel bottle that used to have contact saline solution. With the small dropper built in, it works well, and you do not have to worry about large quantities around the work area. It has a lid/cap built in. CAUTION: take the saline label off and relabel the small bottle so no one confuses it. Same bottle used for years without noticeable degradation of the plastic.
Xylene is better on copper coins, I'll have to remember to use it when needed, I still have Xylene so I'll find out!
Just a memory...White-Out correction fluid cannot be removed with acetone but is easily removed with Xylene (or Toluene)
I remember when Mom had a bottle of Wite-Out that had dried up. I was a hero, because I restored it for her -- by mixing in carbon tetrachloride. It worked like a charm, and even smelled nice! Fortunately, none of us ever developed liver or kidney problems. (Okay, Dad got kidney stones many decades later, but I don't think it was related.)
An interesting book I once had (Eleven Blue Men) had a story in it about a case of carbon tet poisoning.
We’ve flogged this horse many times before, and typically a chemist will come along to explain in scientific terms why I must be wrong. I’m not a chemist and remember very little from my college chemistry classes, but I do know what I’ve personally witnessed, and it’s this: I’ve used both acetone and xylene to “de-gunk” silver, CuNi, and true copper coins with no problems. However, in two instances I used acetone on BRONZE coins and experienced a pink-ish discoloration. Again, I’m not a chemist and can’t explain why that happened; I can only guess that perhaps there’s a contaminant in the alloy that doesn’t like acetone. I’ve used acetone on other bronze coins with no ill effect, but to be safe I now only use xylene.
