The easy way to find deep coins
Metal detecting for deep coins is a skill you will learn over a period of time in the field, successful metal detecting is always a combination of luck and skills.
But it’s always good to stack the odds in your favour, many will say the most expensive metal detectors will find the most coins, I say differently and here’s why!
Deep coins are hiding everywhere
To stack the odds in your favour, you will need to approach your metal detecting differently to your competitors. Deep coins always give some tell-tale signs such as high target ID numbers and a softer audio sound.
Some ancient coins are low conductors, but that’s not we are hunting for in this article, it’s the big copper and Silver coins.
How to cherry pick the older coins
This is when the audio modulation comes into play, the Vanquish 460 has a fixed modulation, that works very well.
How does Audio Modulation work?
It is all based on signal strength coming from the target to the machine.As a rule the deeper targets will have a quieter sound, due to depth and signal deterioration.
High target ID numbers are always a good indication of high conductive coins.
The deep target trap
This is the grey area, some small shallow targets may also give a quiet audio dust to their size, also large deep targets will give a loud audio.With practice, you get a feel for what the metal detector is telling you and in time you will learn to recognize, what I call a “Textbook Target”
Plough land the exception
This rule only applies to ancient land that his not been disturbed, if the land has been ploughed in recent times the old targets may be close to the surface.
There are 3 popular styles of metal detecting
Relic hunting uses no Iron rejection because true relics can be made of Iron such as weapons, cannonballs, armour, even some nails have historic significance.
General detecting is what most people use, it only uses a small amount of Iron rejection in order to detect low conductivity targets such as ancient coins and jewellery.
Coin hunting uses a large range of target rejection covering Iron, and low conductivity targets. Allowing the user to concentrate on bigger targets such as coins.
Reading the land
Look out for old trees and potential old footpaths, a good indication of an unused footpath is the high volume of junk….Listen to your metal detector !
Sometimes old coins were hidden in the fork of trees, so always check around fallen trees.
Lots of junk, stay focused
If you encounter an area with lots of junk targets, don’t walk away as this is a sign of habitation. Work slowly and methodically, listen out for those solid 2 way signals. More will be explained in the Skill School video at the bottom of this article.
Here is a link to some of the metal detecting kit I use.
Crawfords metal detectors
Coin recovery and pinpointing
This is an essential part of your metal detecting skills, spend time to correctly pinpoint the target before digging and only dig clinical holes using a hand held pin pointer to locate the exact target.
Valleys in fields
Always try to picture how the landscape looked hundreds of years ago, work along valleys and troughs which our predecessors may have used for footpaths. A horse and cart would have always taken the easy way up a hill.
What is the best metal detector for locating deep coins?
Metal detecting technology has significantly changed over the last few years. Minelab Have recently introduced their outstanding Multi-IQ technology into the Vanquish range starting at under £300. Multi – IQ is unique, it does the heavy lifting and internal calibration for you. In return, you can spend more time enjoying your metal detector rather than pressing buttons.
These machines run on Multi-Frequency, which means they can work on wet sand and inland with very few adjustments.
The full Minelab range can be seen in action on the Skill School YouTube channel
The full Minelab Vanquish range
Deep junk Vs Deep Coins
This will always be a challenge, there will always be junk where there has been habitation, that’s the challenge.
The metal detector will do its best to give you all the visual and audio information to work with, but it is up to you to add the human element. And this is where your skills will meet reward.
You can see my full Minelab Vanquish 460 coin hunting top tips video below.
