RickUK

For the most part all my permissions or sites that i have detected on over the years are pretty mild mineral content,i do almost all my detecting just north of roman Londinium and never really have any major issues ground mineral wise,but i/we have access to a roman trading villa sites that has been detected for i guess just over 12 years,this sites was a active roman trading site for 400 years,so the amount of coinage that has been found with detectors without exaggerating must be approaching a 5 figure amount its been that prolific. Only trouble with this site the ground is basically just like black sand from the beach,very highly mineralised but just natural occurrence and not man made,the only machines that will really work on the site and produce finds is multi freq VLF and Pulse machines ,the current king and will be ongoing is the Equinox,and also CTX and Etrac's. This one of unique site is possibly the hardest site that i have detected,but it still keep producing finds on a regular basis even after all these years.

I still own and occasionally use my old faithful DFX,it was one of the 1st batch into the UK back in 2002,its found me some of my nicest finds,not necessary a deep machine as such but had a certain biased towards gold coinage especially when using the 10x6 coil or my all time DFX coil the 12'' Hotshot coil,amazing combination and the coil is ultra lightweight because its foam filled but of course would be no good in the surf as the coil tends to want too float. Only reason i still keep it though is that although i have used it for many 1000s of enjoyable detecting its still in remarkable good condition,would only get peanuts for it if i sold it anyway.So it stays in my detecting arsenal but still occasionally comes out too play. Like yourself i do also own a Equinox but because more modern and lighter machines have come out ie my Nox and Deus and T2 etc these 3 machines are far superior performance wise and also so much lighter than the DFX.I am away on a charity rally dig this coming sunday and may take the old DFX with me with the Hotshot coil on and blow the cobwebs off the detector.

Steve,appreciate all the work that you do with the site/forum......thanks alot.

Pretty easy to understand actually,beside the cable that goes to the pinpointer as in the picture that you posted is a connector that you screw in a audio lead that then goes to the audio socket on the detector.....you then have a switch that you run in audio mode as per normal headphone setup,when you locate a signal that you wish too pinpoint you then take the probe and flick the switch this then knocks out the uadio from the detector and all you then hear is the pinpointer sound. Once you have heard the target through your headphones and retrieved the target then you flick back the switch into normal detecting audio mode and carry on detecting till the next target and then the same method is used to locate the target. Rather than say having to move the headphones on one side so that you can hear the target you hear it through the headphone,also another major feature is that because its a PI probe it will give you extra depth of maybe a couple or 3 inches extra depth when locating the target. Also another big trump card with this setup is that you can buy a rod assembly and a mono coil from the suppliers,unscrew the pinpointer from the headphones and then connect your mono coil and you then have a self contained Pulse detector all built into the headphones,they do 2 coil sizes a 8'' and a 10'' mono coil,but in the last couple of years they have stopped selling this headphone/probe setup and also the coils and rod are hard too find as well,often you can find them that someone has old stock.I have located a 8'' coil from a supplier across the pon so that is heading home to good old Blighty.

I am aware that this thread is years old,but i finally got my hands on a brand new ' DetectorPro Uniprobe ' they are as i am aware not made anymore,but here in the UK not only are they ultra rare but also horrendously expensive that is when they had been stocked by just say 2 supplier.But in the last 2 days bought a brand new one and also 2 brand news coils for the PI headphones,but no shaft but as they are a common shaft setup will probably use a spare bran new Golden Mask collapsible shaft that i have laying around. Although the coil and shaft setup can be kept in the back of the truck,it was the headphones/probe part of it that i really always wanted,i am going to have too stop buying anymore detectors and coils as i am currently upto 26 detectors and 54 coils i jest not ?

Out of interest what does the 'w' stand for ?? or prehaps your surname is say wright'

RickUK,one does not need to be Einstein to work my forum name out ? i am from good old 'Blighty' and live just north of roman 'Londinium'

Regis,some tremendous finds that old 'Father Thames' has given up after all these years,what freq had you been using on the HF coil ??

Outstanding images,really find these types of stories interesting.........would you do it all over again ??

I have detecting a local river crossing/ford near me,the shallow river has 2 main attractions that it was one of the main routes into the village from one of the main Roman road going north,and often visited by romans and drover going back 2000 years. The river is shallow as rivers go about 12'' deep during the summer and maybe 18-20'' during the wet winter months,but by your average river depth its very shallow,but the length of time that humans have used this crossing items would have not only been casual drops but also votive offering by the Romans too the water gods,so the possibility of finding some roman coinage is a possibility,as the water level is reasonably low during the summer months as that is the only time i detect this river,then one does not really need any high end submersible detectors,infact when i put my chest waders on all i use is a old Compadre which has had a coil plug added so that i can use a variety of coils,but surprisingly enough i always use the small 4'' coil for possibly pickling out the coins from between the rocks and it does work rather well,2nd machine i also use but not as much is a very old Musketeer and hang the control box from my neck and just use the small 7.5'' coil or what ever size it is once again from my neck. The 2nd and most desirable type of detecting that i do from this small crossing and that is the fact that during the hot summer months the local mums take the kids down to the river for a paddle as its shallow,the kids go fishing with nets and buckets after tadpoles etc and mum shows some interest,but this is when the problems start,as mums fingers get wet and cold from playing with the kids and before long the fine gold ring that once belonged too granny and often has a high class lump of ice set into the ring has gone,panic sets in and they think they will never see the ring again,but over the years folks have approached me in helping find these lost items of jewellery and i do this as a totally free service to the local community,albeit a few times i have found a few rings and some other items of jewellery that had been lost possibly decades ago and the original owner have either died or left the area and no contact details so those i have claimed for myself,but for the most part these items are handed back to the original owner. Another interesting method that i also do is that as this mainly was a ford/river crossing for nearly 2000 years a small 'hump back' bridge was built between 250-300 years ago,dont have a exact date but thats not far out date wise,this small bridge runs right next door to the original ford crossing,so this has been a main exit route from the village after say a burglaries and late at night folks have been known to throw/dump interesting items into the river from the bridge,i wont expand on that but not only detecting is good but also 'magnet fishing' has produced some interesting finds over the years. So these have been my detecting ventures over the years mainly when the crops are in full growth so like a junky i need my detecting fix i usually venture into my local river,not as exciting a some of these top YouTube players,but it gives me some excitement and i enjoy doing it,and as long as it makes 'me' happy then that is all that counts.

Outstanding finds,not connected with any gold coins with the Nox as yet,but on a few of the sites that i have detected before have found Celtic gold staters,so just hoping it will be a matter of time and find something decent.

You sound like you are a electronics whizzkid

Absolutely bloody brilliant,really one of the top posts !!

Regis me old mate,thats a tremendous size trench for the Thames foreshore and its because you are one of the few 'Larkers' that has that rare licence to dig that deep,love the finds thats one of the beauties that the Thames is very kind and keep them in usually great condition. Just hope your good lady wife is still around and not in that hole that you dug ? ? will you be using the new Tesoro elliptical coil on the 'Old Father Thames' foreshore ??

Just bought a 15'' Nox coil so should be here by the weekend,will mainly be used more for ground coverage rather than just solely for the extra depth,from what i can understand they are superb detector/coil combination on our silver hammered coins,which of course is a big bonus as well. My tiny 6'' coil has all ready arrived,so that will be used mainly for getting in between the stubble rows come harvest time and also on trashy roman/saxon sites,the large coil is also pretty good on trashy sites as well.

Some nice find me old mate,your licence allows upto 3ft digging on the Thames foreshore,never knew you had a motorbike !!

Steve,a terrific article that you have written,albeit as you are aware that in theory we dont have gold nuggets as such,but we do have of course celtic gold staters and other gold coins as well,i have the 11'' stock coil and also just purchased a 6'' coil as well,from your experience of detecting here in the UK would/could this gold nugget method using the 6'' coil be used for hunting for gold coins here in certain locations that other celtic gold staters have also been found.Try too improve the odds in my favour. The Equinox and small coil are a deadly combination for silver hammered coins but was wondering what your thoughts are on celtic gold staters and gold hammered coins ??

Still reckon it could well be the power cable as i mentioned on FB,wow £42 for a cable thats crazy.

Some nice finds,just bought myself a Equinox and 1st time out should be this weekend,was interested in them when they initially came out but my major buying criteria is that held me back is that a product need to be out for a minimum of 12 months so that any major defects or other issues appear and we are out of the 12 month period and the detector has proved too be pretty reliable and also finding items on a consistent basis as well. Well done on the finds it gives me some encouragement for the new detector.

Thats the site that 'Sven Stau' from Canada owns,terrific source of early detector information and some of his modifications and 'Mirage' pulse interests,i own and use one of the Mirage detector and red hot on small gold jewellery.

For a all round general purpose use detector,very light and possibly one of the easiest machines for setting up my vote would be the T2,had mine since 2006/7 and found me the most gold coins for sure.From the time of starting the machine up and then detecting is just seconds its that easy in terms of setting up.

Its a superb find and it makes no odds if it was found by a dog,metal detector or eyes only find and really pleased for the finder/s,but i am wondering and this is just my personal opinion if this is a slight PR marketing ploy trying to get more folks into the area buying detecting equipment and supplies making a mini gold rush because of a few high profile nugget finds......probable wrong but gold fever can grip folks and get them too part with money into the local economy ?

I dont personally use any of the dedicated gold machines be it VLF or PI,so as such i cannot comment about your questions,here in the UK as such we dont have gold nuggets,so this is the main reason why i am not clued up as most of the other folks on this forum. But what i do have and use and totally agree with you is the TDI Prothat is a superb machine and use it exactly the same as yourself ie low conductivity and by fine tuning the settings for the most part i can just dig my desired targets ie silver hammered and gold coins as those are the main targets that i am after and it does a surprisingly good job of knocking small iron and nails etc its that good but wont miss a decent targets.Most of my coils are GPX ones which of course work a treat on the TDI Pro,although i have 8 coils for the TDI my main 3 are the 10x5 folded mono,Coiltek 14x9 Mono my favourite and the bloody humongous 20'' Jimmy Sierra mono for maximum depth. Also have a GPX4500 coming as well,but if i am honest i think the TDI will still be the No1 use machine.

How are Minelab too tell if you have a modified coil fitted ?? in the case of the SDC if anything did go wrong then just change the coil back and no one would be non the wiser if you dont tell them,also from what i can see the GPZ after market coil option requires the end plug too be taken off and used because of the chip problem,but as most folks who have bought a GPZ would have 2 factory coil,could they not just send back the decent non modified coil back with the detector or am i reading this wrong ?? Of course Minelab will post a 'warranty warning' its natural as they dont want lost sales of its products,but the Coiltek afrermarket coil option looks a superb product,but Minelab would only have knowledge of you using this aftermarket coil product if you told them about using it.

I use a Fisher TW-5 twin box and i have 2 simulated hoards buried at crazy depths and the twin boxes nails them everytime,about as much use on single coins or small artefact as a chocolate teapot,but for orange size articles and bigger the larger the item the deeper they go. Regarding Pulse machines it does not have too be specifically a GPX pulse,i use a TDI Pro with coils right upto 20'' and once again if a hoard/cache is in that location then once again the TDI will nail it,2 other machines that i also use are the Nexus SE and the MP.All these machines are 'very deep' hitters as i call them,if a pot hoard is in the ground all these machines will nail them at amazing depths,in the case of say roman pot hoards traditionally a hoard was buried at what a man was laying down and could put a container in the ground at arms length,so for the most part these would be from say 15-24+'' which is well within the means of a Pulse of a high end VLF machine especially if the container is full or coins or other artefacts,here in the UK we have only found a very very small percentage of hoards,and over the coming years as detector get more powerful then bigger and more famous ones will appear that i am certain. Not sure how big a area that your so called cache is buried but gut feeling tells me that if you have not got any hits with 2 twin box machines then i am most surprised,a GPX i doubt would give you any advantage over a twin box.Most hoards that are found in the UK are what we call them scattered hoards ie the tops of the containers are clipped by modern deep ploughing and then scattered on further ploughing and also bringing up further coins and artefacts.You can start seeing a pattern emerging from the stray coins and then locate the main hoard main location,then it can start getting easier as just the sheer bulk of the coins or artefacts can/will trigger most VLF or Pulse machines with a larger coil on.We have a advantage that traditionally coins are buried in earthenware pots so detectors can see through them and pick up on the coins inside,but saying that even if a hoard is buried in a tin/metal box and it should give a humongous signal then you would dig that type of signal anyway........before i even switch on my heavy hitters and the prospect of digging large deep holes i have too way up the reward to effort ratio,if i find scattered coins in a tight radius then i fire up the detector/s as that is indicating a reward in my favour,but if like yourself a potential hoard is from hearsay then i would need far more concrete information that its worth putting the effort in and the reward certainly must be more concrete than hearsay. Of course this is only some suggestions on what machines i use for hoard hunting and what i would use,i dont have a clue or very little about gold nugget hunting but i do have a fair amount of knowledge on recovering deep artefacts etc.Hope you do find your cache or what ever it is.