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About a week ago I had another great hunt for older coins with my Equinox 800. I don't often go to areas with the chance of finding older coins so this was a real treat. Of course, finding older coins is very much a function of going to places where the older coins actually are there. Found 1941s, 1952d,1941s, 1910, and 1953 wheat pennies. The 1953 on the far left in the photo had been made into a button. Pretty neat. Also, found 1956d rosie, 1935 and 1924s Mercury dimes in nice condition. Also, found 2 ea Mexico 1946 10 Centavos and 1 ea Mexico 1945 10 Centavos. Hunted in my normal Park 1 with Recovery speed upped to 6, iron bias down to 1, and sensitivity 18-20 depending on conditions. Really getting to like the Equinox after a beginning with a strong learning curve after having used another detector (Whites XLT) for 14 years.

I had to pick my wife off at the airport and it's a trip I usually dread but I decided to plan ahead. I threw my metal detector and fishing rod in the car and a lot of water and hit a couple spots along the way or at least in the area. I got my most pieces of silver ever in a single outing and had fun exploring some new water and ground.

Being informed and observant can pay off at times. I posted a while back some of my finds from a local school expansion project. The area in the picture is being built up for a parking lot, but it's where the dirt comes from that has allow many of these finds. The dirt being hauled in is actually coming from where the old school grounds are. My buddy found a 1898 V nickel at the same site. It appears to be several more days of hunting as there's a lot of dirt yet to be relocated. I'd really like to know where they hauled the best top soil to, but I'm grateful like it is. But looks like a week of rain here, so hunting will be very limited. As a final note, I went to grade school in the mid 60's and actually played in this same area. Makes me wonder if I might find something I actually lost.

I found one of my bucket listers this morning during a 3 hour hunt. What is it? :) I will take her down to the laboratory for some electrolysis and post pic later.

I seem to be getting something good every time I go out lately, and I use a different setting when I go back to places I've been before and new finds keep popping up. It's like having a different detector each time I go back to a place. Got a nice rare Seated dime 1861 s, Ben Franklin cleaned up nicely, and got my first two Indian heads in a long time. I also got about 4 other silver and a dozen wheats. Not trying to go too deep, but listening for clean tones between the trash.

So I decided to purchase a used SDC 2300 that was posted here on the website from Fort Bedford as I have heard and read many good things about this detector. I received the detector yesterday. This morning I decided to go to the local volleyball court in my neighborhood and just dig all of the signals and see how it reacted to a location that I have detected many times with my Original Tesoro Lobo. This machine is too simple to use that you almost think you are missing something until you hit a target and dig. I only stayed about an hour and only got about a 1/3rd of the court done before the humidity and heat came on. I concentrated on a slow swing overlapping the coil on each pass. Below are photos of my finds, 52 cents, tiny bits of wire / junk and my first gold (urban nugget / clasp .5 g) with the SDC 2300. I will soon venture up north in the prescott area to detect a little and see if I can find a real in the wild nugget! Have a great weekend! Jimmy

My mom found her first buffalo nickle and then her first silver soon after.

Found a handful of silvers last week. I was wondering if anyone has been lucky enough to find a gold soverighn yet? Fair enuff if you dont want to discolse that ? But would be interesting to know if they are out there. From what ive researched, the Victorians did seem to have them in their pockets at times, after all, a half sovereign was worth 120 pence, or 10 shillings. Of which ive found loads. If only i could get in my delorean time machine and go exchange a few shillings for a few half sovereigns lol. Or a full sovereign, worth only 8 half crowns, again which ive got a few of. Oh how i'd die if i found a sovereign, Its a bucket-Lister for sure. Cheers! Andy.

but man it sure was nice to dig in the dirt and talk to people in the neighborhood that I was detecting. It was all so really nice to find my first Indian Head pennies in a while that were in great shape and I got to keep ? I detected with my Equinox 600 for a while and then switched over to my AT Pro with a small coil. The Minelab didn't miss much but it did miss the very unique pin. If anybody has any information on it it would be really cool. Thanks for looking and have a great day.

I bought my nephews from Denmark detectors a few years ago but they haven't had a lot of luck most likely due to the fact that I wasn't there to teach them how to use them. I took them out on the lawn and they had a blast finding my wheaties, old nickles, a few rough indian heads, and assorted relics. The only downside is now they have unrealistic expectations of how many fines are actually in the ground ?

Here are some of my finds so far.

I got into the hobby of metal detecting three years ago and have a couple of Teknetics detectors which work just great. I watched the development and release of the Equinox brand with interest as a friend is an avid Minelab user. To cut a really long winded story short, I bought an Equinox 800. Nobody has been more amazed at the capabilities of this detector than I. In the short six weeks I have been learning to us it, I am in awe of it's simplicity, or if so desired, it's complexity. I have not ventured too far in adjusting settings yet as I learn the basics of this machine. One of the standout features of the detector is the wireless headset capability; I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I am. Anyway, I don't always find silver when I head out detecting but when I do, it is magical. I'll let a couple of pics tell the rest of the story.... The quarters are 1918, 1951, 1952 and 1960. The dimes are 1942, 1949, 1950, 1960 and 1965...and that Merc is a 1944. The ring on the left is stamped sterling and the other two are stamped 925. I think I've caught the silver bug that is going around!!!!! Thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum as it is a very impressive resource for folks like me. Thank you all!!

Last night i went to the beach with the ET hoping for Gold but didn't find any . By the time the tide was low i was knackered trying to do the tops for 5 hours . I had £33.22p including a £5 note and a few unknown foreign coins . I left at 5am for home . Anyway as i have said in the title . This will be my last hunt for a while with my ET . Yesterday i called the dealer i sold my last Terra 705 and asked if i could buy it back , i need lightweight and the Terra and Nox will be used on the Anderson shaft so i can switch machines on the beach . My next hunt will be on early Sunday morning with the Terra/Nox combo .

Did a little construction hunting yesterday at one of the locals schools where I live. It’s truly amazing what happens when the top layer of dirt is removed from an old, hunted out site. Over the past 20 years this particular site has yielded many different type of coins dated to the late 1800’s. Some brought both happiness and complete confusions as to why they were at this location but little research revealed the original school was a two story wooden structure and an old home at the same location. Well anyway, the city decided to build on to the school again and started moving dirt this week and I thought I’d give it a try. I believe the V nickels might have come from the original school location. Maybe moved and reburied when the original school was demolished. All and all a very enjoyable hunt to say the least. I must admit I've not re-hunted this site since getting my Equinox, but maybe I should.

I haven't been out much in the last 2 months due to getting the house ready to sell for a big move to Texas. So, the last couple of days I've had a few hours to finally get out and hit a couple of places that had played out for the most part with the CTX. I went to the local zoo hoping to score at least a wheat or a Rosie, well, it turned out better than I expected. I sure love the fact I can move right along with Nox rather than crawling with the CTX and cover some serious real estate. Using my trusty 2-tone cherry picking mode I popped out 2 rosies, a merc and a wheaty. Having big fun lately ?

Last night after work i went to the beach with my ET for low tide , i got there at 9.20pm . Low tide was around midnight so i had some time to search down to low tide . I also searched the tops , for a while i found very little . There were quite a few people on the beach still after dark but i found some coinage . low down on the beach i had a 12 46 and found another Silver ring , probably a toe ring ? After that i did the tops but coinage was rare again . But in the dark i shone on an area of rubbish and saw a £10 note so that doubled my finds at the time. After finished that beach i went onto another beach next and found little but then on the tops i found a watch , doesn't fit my wrist or Mum's so will see if it fits my Nieces . I left the beach at 11.45pm as i was to tired to carry on and it was very warm and muggy , I was betting my swollocks off . I could almost wish for a storm to cool things off . I will be back there later today at 5pm in 2 hours time . Tide will be high so i will work it out again and hope for yellow. My finds yesterday were £25.73p , the ring and the watch .

On Thursday/Friday 29-06-18 after finishing work at 9pm Thursday i went to the beach when the weather was very warm , i searched from 1am to 7am and found £37.25p , a Silver ring , a 50 Euro Cent , a US Cent and another small foreign coin , a 13000 mah Power bank , a nail file and a pen . When i got home i had to go to London Guy's Hospital with Mum on the 10.30 Bus then a Train so Mum could go to see her Surgeon at 2.30pm that will be operating on her right Lung which is possibly Cancerous but they cannot be sure of it in a few weeks time . She definitely has a lump in her Lung so being she has had Breast Cancer in the past we can assume it is Cancer. We got home from there at around 9pm and stuffed into take away Fish and Chips . Saturday i worked. Today Sunday 1st July was a really warm day here in the UK and the beaches i go to to detect were heaving big time . I went early at 4pm to see if i could hunt for rings low down and i would hunt the dry tops later when the crowds cleared a bit . Well i started at around 4pm and searched the lower beach in the surf as the tide went out being careful not to drop ET in the oggin , not long into the search i found a small Silver ring and had some coins turn up too . I occasionally searched some spots on the tops which were clear of crowds and found more . At about 7pm i was disturbed by a Romanian woman that her Husband had lost his Wedding ring , she said its the same as hers at 14k and hers read 12 16 on the ET . So for a while i searched for the ring where he said he lost it but didn't find it . So for a while i kept looking for other stuff and found more coinage and another small Silver ring . After a while another detectorist turned up and the man that lost the ring asked him if he could look for it , he was using an older XP machine so as i didn't want him to find it as it would have been embarrassing for my ET i got stuck in looking for it again . The couple were obviously thinking that the ring was lost and had started to leave the beach when i had a 12 15 on my ET , i dug the target and i saw it was the ring . But it wasn't where he said it was . I shouted i have found the ring and they came back to me . He said he was going to give me a reward and gave me £50 . I think that he was happy just to have the ring back , being their rings were the same except for size . After that i went hunting for more rings and had another bigger Silver ring and a junk ring , when the crowds cleared a bit more i did the dry and found more coinage . It is harder than in the past now most people use cashless means of payment but today was quite good though not as good as a few years ago when i could score a ton through the night . I could have stayed through the night but my knees are getting a bit knackered for that and by 11 pm i was knackered so called it a day . My total for this search was including the reward £94.34p , a US Cent , a 20 Euro Cent , 3 Silver rings , a junk ring and the returned Gold ring . Thats the first Gold ring i have found that was found with my present ET and my first 14k . The picture of the Gold ring is taken by my phone on my upturned rucksack. I would go to the beach on Monday but i have other things to do so my next search is next Friday night or Saturday .

A friend of mine introduced me to his friend who is a fellow Marine and served in Korea. His home dates back to the early 1800's and every time I drive by it I dream of all the coins and relics. I had 4 detectors to share but began and ended with the Equinox 600. I detected a plateau on the side of the driveway first and found spme relics from the early 1900's but no coins so we focused on the front yard and my first coin was a 64 lincoln down 6-7". The soil was unconsolidated, sandy, and iron rich and I worried the older coins may be too deep. I couldn't hunt with the sensitivity over 22-23 due to interference so I thought I may increase depth and see through the tough ground by ground balancing. I forgot how and had to pull up a video. The manual ground balance worked and I found a 1960 silver dime down 7-8 " and then a 1959 dime. The finds were getting older as we detected across the lawn. A few wheaties later I received a mixed high tone that read between 18 and 23. I have learned to trust repeatable signals but the ground was mineralized and I thought it might be affecting the signals. I pulled up an indian head in beatiful shape. I handed it to the stoic old Marine and his eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face. He said, " I haven't seen one of these since I was a kid. I then found a wheatie, 4 more IH's, and 2 more wheaties all in the same hole. I couldn't believe all the coins and the fabulous shape they were in. Most of my Indian Heads have been pretty corroded but these were clean. (Not all the coins were pictured since the homeowner left some inside.) I found a steady stream of wheaties and relics to keep me smiling all day. I really smiled widely and shouted loudly when I received a repeatable 32-35 near an old maple and saw the dark green disk in the hole. Just like almost all the other coins, I let the old Marine be the first to touch the coin. He asked what it was not having seen one in his 80 some odd years and turning it over I showed him where it read ONE CENT. It was an epic time with a great friend whom I teach Earth science with and a new friend who I was blessed to share some memories that will last forever. I gave the homeowner the coins and with an hour to detect I hit a local park and found a Barber dime, pendant, some wheaties, and my first nickle in 7 hunts that read a vdi of 12.

A friend who recently caught the detecting bug asked me to detect a worksite of his rental property in an area that saw activity dating back to the 1700's. The foundation had to be repaired and the house was off. I have detected some extremely trashy sites, many cellar holes loaded with iron, but this was by far the worst. My headphones were filled with an endless stream of burps, blips, and iron tones, including loads of signals from flashing and shreaded copper. I began detecting with the equinox and found a wheatie and a few relics but unfortunately no other decent signals, even with higher recovery speeds, horseshoe mode, and slow sweep speed. I know the Equinox is awesome but it definitely could use a smaller coil. I figured since my buddy shared his property and was detecting with me in the rain in his Tshirt that I better increase my chances and put some coins in his pocket. I grabbed the AT Pro with the smaller coil out of the car and it did the trick. I found the cool button, a 1910 wheatie, an 1896 IH, and while detecting atop the debris from the excavation I found one of my favorite bottles ever.

Had a chance to test the Makro Multi-Kruzer with wireless headphones this weekend. I found most of the coins in Three-tone, 14kHz, with minimal notching. My oldest was a 1901 Indian Head, and my deepest was a 1941 Wheat penny on the deeper side of 11-inches! I thought I had a sliver of Spanish silver for a heartbeat, but no. I really liked the 4-Tone mode, in 5kHz, in the high iron and trash areas I hunted. It really helped me avoid a lot of trash signals. Recovery is fast, depth meter is accurate. Ergonomics are good, and the weight is tolerable for a five-six hour hunt. I like it!

Last night I detected under a tree in a rain storm and still found a 1919 wheatie and today I used the Field 2 program with 5 tones, sweep speed 1, sensitivity 23, and horseshoe mode to find 2 IHs and what looks to be a counterfeit quarter. The settings found the pennies @ 9+" I also used the CGTime Golden Plated 3.5mm MONO 1/8 inch Audio Male to 6.35mm 1/4 inch Female Jack Converter Cable Cord Adapter (25CM/10Inch) to connect my more comfortable headphones.

I used baking soda and water to clean the coins since I don't plan on selling them.

I have been detecting for 10 yrs now and my total count for Indian Head Pennies stands at 3. My area was settled mid 1850’s. I have found numerous barber’s, V nickels, shield nickels and a couple of seated coins have been found. A bunch of teen Wheaties but the Indians are still hiding from me. I see a lot of you guys finding them on nearly every hunt and one guy in Ohio they just seem to jump out of the ground for him.? i think of the ratio of coppers to silver in finds but with all the coins I have found minted at the same time as the Indians I just wonder what happened to the Indians in this area.

I did a thread recently where I was hunting local park areas and wanting to experiment with "cherry picking" settings that would net me the most coins the fastest without bogging down into overly serious detecting. I normally hunt 50 tones with no items rejected, which works well but which requires me to work slowly analyzing targets sounds. Time is limited so I wanted to get out and cover some area. The settings worked well enough to get a pile of coins out of some trashy modern park settings. Park 1 - Multi-IQ 50 Tones Iron Bias 0 Detect Speed 6 unless in dense trash, then 7 Auto (Pump) Ground Balance Sensitivity 21 or 22 depending on EMI All items from 21 on down rejected except for 13 For nickels I was being really picky, just digging good, solid 13 readings. I do know nickels can also read 12 but I did not want to recover too many pull tabs so kept this very narrow. And I have to note - I am experimenting!! There is nothing magic about these settings, just something I am trying in modern trash. Anyway, it worked halfway well and I was able to readily skim coins out of a modern trashy park area with minimal trash, and nearly all that being square tabs that read 13 like the nickels. Very little high end trash. I was getting quite a bit of ferrous high tone squeaking but only a couple that tempted me enough to dig them anyway, and got a couple nails. This weeked I wanted to try an area I had cherry picked before for copper/silver range targets, but my ear is better tuned now so wanted to give it another go with more open settings than above but still not wide open full tones. I employ different levels of intensity in my hunting that varies by location, time constraints, and my mood. Sometimes I want to recover all non-ferrous targets. Sometimes just copper/silver. And sometimes varying levels of in between. This next round I opened up the discrimination a little. Park 1 - Multi-IQ 50 Tones Iron Bias 0 Detect Speed 6 unless in dense trash, then 7 Auto (Pump) Ground Balance Sensitivity 21 or 22 depending on EMI All items from 16 on down rejected except for 12 & 13 This time however I rejected everything from 16 on down except 12 & 13. The goal here is zinc pennies read 21 and since I hate them it makes for my regular cutoff point in areas from around 1930 and newer. However, in older areas there are two things in particular to pay attention to, assuming you still want to reject some stuff. Indian Head pennies overlap the zinc penny range. New zincs come in at 21 but corroded ones will read lower. Indian Head pennies can read in that same "high teens / low twenties" range. Also, a $5 gold coin will normally read at 18. Ground and age can pull readings lower, and so I decided on 17 on up as being good, but 17 is debatable. I will decide on that later after digging enough 17 targets. But 18 on up has to be open because I am determined to find a $5 gold coin with Equinox. I also wanted to open up the nickel range as older nickels seem to hit around 12 and newer ones more in the 13 region. Again, just experimenting! I also need to note that I am using Park 1 - target id can vary depending on mode and frequency. I told myself I would skip shallow zinc signals but I have a real problem passing on clean sounding targets, and so dug most of these since they are shallow and easy to pop. I did finally make myself stop though as it is a time waster - zinc pennies were the most common "trash" target followed again by some square tabs. Like I noted, I detected this area before, so once I pulled the about 20 zincs aside I ended up with 10 copper pennies, 4 dimes, and 3 nickels, none all that old. However, I got three special signals. The first was as nice a 12 reading as I could hope for, just a nice clean, mellow tone. And down about 8" appears my first ever Liberty or "V" nickel, a 1909. Some time later and maybe 100 feet away another identical, mellow 12 reading - I just knew it had to be another nickel. This one was down under a tree root at about 8" and popped out of the ground dry and green - another V nickel, 1898 this time. My first Liberty nickels, and two in one day! Some time later, with time running out, I got a messy 19 reading. It was trashy sounding but just good enough to get me to dig, and my first Indian Head penny pops up next to some ferrous trash. So after 45 years of detecting, why am I only now finding my first old coins of these types? I was born in Anchorage, Alaska and lived there my entire life up until 5 years ago. Anchorage was founded in 1915 and most of that area is paved over core downtown. Most of the town is far newer. I considered 1930's coins to be the great old finds, with only a couple ever from the 20's, and never anything from the teens or earlier. The bottom line is these types of coins just did not exist where I lived. And then I got into nugget detecting...... So anyway, a couple firsts for me, and that alone made it quite fun. I used some cleaning tips mentioned on this other thread (steel wool) on the 1909 Liberty but left the other alone as cleaning it would probably make it worse. The IHP has a couple weird corrosion blobs on it so have not messed with it. Anyway, opening up the extra notches did not get me into too much trash except for the zincs I did not resist digging. The big lesson is that deep Liberty nickels, or at least these two, were the most wonderful mellow 12 signals one could imagine. So my current working theory is newer nickels will tend towards 13 and older ones 12 while in Park 1 mode.

Aside from the fact you might find gold jewelry in the nickel range, why do you hunt for nickels? I also am a detector nut myself and do understand the concept of detecting for anything just for the fun of it. When I do coin hunt however the fact is most older nickels I find are in such poor condition that it’s doubtful they are even worth face value. Yet most silver coins I find look as new as the day they were dropped. Many silver coins found will grade out decently, but that is very rare for old nickels. This means the chance of finding high value silver coins is vastly better than the chance of finding high value nickels. Or so I believe. Newer nickels are in better condition, but key date Jefferson’s are not exactly worth a fortune, and they are few and far between. Then there is the fact that going after nickels usually involves more trash per coin, at least in my experience. If I focus on silver dimes and higher there is very little trash that ends up in my pouch. Anyway, is anyone digging nickels for any real reason other than that finding an old Buffalo or V nickel is a fun find? What’s the highest value nickel anyone has found? I have some War nickels that might be worth a few bucks, but that’s it for me.