Unearthing History: Tips for Targeting Silver Relics

[JohamSmith]

Hello treasure hunters! As someone deeply immersed in the world of precious metals, I’ve noticed that certain areas and techniques are particularly fruitful for discovering silver artifacts. From old trade routes to battlefields, understanding the history can guide our searches. What are your go-to strategies for locating hidden silver? Let's swap tips and maybe even share stories of our most exciting finds!

[JCR]

Interesting topic.  Welcome to the Forum from East Texas.

[RickUK]

Detecting silver here in the UK as such is not a easy specific task and the main reason is that our history goes back 1000s of years,our hammered coinage vary not only in size but also the silver content is not always the same ie depends on what state the economy was at the time of making the coins as sometime silver was not in abundance so the coinage would be of a lower purity than some other times.

Of course different sizes and quality of silver can throw a spanner in the works TID wise,so one cannot give a specific number range,also our gold hammered coinage can be exactly the same and TID various as well,its not until milled coinage started that the weights and silver/gold content became standard due the manufacturing process rather than someone hammering a coin blank between 2 dies hence that is why its called hammered coins.

Our silver hammered coins can come in the foil range as can gold hammered coins which can also come into the iron range as well,so basically the bottom line is you cannot rely on TID on any detector hence why we tend to rely more on audio and if you are still not sure you have to dig the find out,that is the only real way of finding out what the find is,it makes no odds if its coinage,jewellery or what ever alas no simple reply can be given about 'Tips for Targeting Silver Relics'

Your spade is still the best method.

[kac]

Typically people hunt silver by digging high tones or running discrimination very high. Silver can fall into the aluminum trash range and wrap to iron when stacked. Response of IB machines is not just based on metal type or purity but also size, shape, orientation and depth.

Coils have a focal range then the signal will fall off. The focal range is effected by ground mineralization. EMI can also effect depth as the machine will try to recover balance as it is being interupted. As you go beyond the focal range of the target the frequency will drop off which results in phase change. This can make tiny silvers difficult to detect.

I prefer mid to high frequencies as they give silver targets a softer response vs other targets because it pushes them up in the response range and gives me more detection gamut range in the aluminum trash range. Some people like to hunt with lower frequencies that will give silver a stronger response but that can effect small gold and thin brass/bronze objects.

Old areas I typically hunt by size and depth listening for weaker signals. Machines with good audio modulation or vco are ideal. Overlapping swings and using the edge of the coil to see how targets fall off in signal will save you from digging a lot of trash. Aluminum almost always has a sharp fall off in signal vs other metals in their same phase angle.