"Uncleaning" a coin?

GoGoGopher said:

DO NOT use permanent marker...Get a #2 graphite pencil and a good pink gummy eraser...run the pencil all over the coin, then hit it with the eraser...This tends to brighten up wheaties, and might bring out some detail on your Copper...I do this on wheats I cannot read the dates on.

HH,

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It's only worth copper melt anyways.You use the marker,then rub your thumb across it.Graphite works too.Easiest way is scribble on a piece of paper,then slide your thumb across the scribblings,then the coin.Sounds like he can do two simple experiments.Sometimes nothing helps.That's what you call a toast with peanut butter

Well, I actually solved my problem! Yeah, there could be an easier way, but here's what I did:

- took wet dirt from my yard, filled a container half way.
- put the coin in the dirt and pressed it down.
- added more wet dirt to the top
- placed the container over a heating vent with a heavy weight on top for constant compression of the dirt
- once the heat dried out the dirt (in a couple of days) I took the coin out... it is now entirely caked with dry dirt.
- I gently rubbed the coin -- especially in the areas where I know there were raised details -- to remove the dirt and soon enough, everything has become visible again.

Ok, it's definitely not as good as when I first cleaned it nor is this a permanant solution (any water on the coin and the dirt would wash away being that it's not a couple hundred years old) but the coin is once again definitely identifiable and that's what I wanted.