Relic vs Coin hunting

[TXDIRTFISHER]

I'm fairly new to t'hunting and I have a few questions:

I've read that some detectors are geared more towards relic hunting vs. coint shooting, and some detectors are better for coins vs. relic hunting. One question is what is the difference between the two? (relic vs coin) You are looking for something made of metal in the ground.....would it matter what type of detector you had? Can one detector cover both types of hunting sufficiently? I'm sort of confused about this. Input would be appreciated.

 

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[rebelLT]

Relic hunting and coin hunting are pretty much two different beasts. A coin hunter is looking for, well, COINS!, and they dont particularly want to dig a bunch of iron and other misc crap. In the U.S. that means a "good" coin hunting detector also has good "discrimination" . This means that the detector will "see" the other non-coin type metals in the ground and "ignore" them by not indicating that the target is there. Of course, as most of the good coin hunters will tell you, you are missing alot by doing this as the deeper the target the less effective any kind of ID on a discrim machine works. DEEP coins sound just like iron or whatever else is 14 inches deep. Some even argue that OLD coins are, in fact, relics.

Relic hunters are looking for anything old and of historic significance, from lead to iron (mostly iron it seems . Depth and sometimes target seperation becomes more of an issue for the relic hunter. You pretty much want the machine to sound off on anything in the ground, not ignore it, and decide what to dig or not to dig.

There are plenty of machines out there that do both pretty well, and I would recomend buying one of these so not to limit yourself to one type of hunting.

 

[Montana Jim]

Thats a pretty good explaination RebelLT...

I think you will find many and most machines will work well with both coins and relics... then, you adjust accordingly depending on your desires... the machines will do the work you set them up to do.

Stay tuned though... tons of great advice will follow I'm sure!

 

[civilman1]

One word.....MXT

 

[TXDIRTFISHER]

Thanks for the info. I guess I never thought about the iron/lead items in the ground being worth anything. I used to have the iron discriminated out of my settings on my CZ-7 but no more. I found that if I include iron in the mix I get more solid hits on coins. My guess is that by placing iron on the discrim list, my detector has to work harder to keep it out and still pick up the stuff I want. That might not be correct but that is how I see it.

 

[lessthanzero]

One word.....MXT

Another word.......Minelab X-Terra's, actually it's more than one word, but powerful..........

 

[Montana Jim]

Discrimnate iron... and you discriminate gold. (Usually)

 

[TXDIRTFISHER]

I'm not sure if all detectors do this but since I've got the pull tabs discriminated they now show up as silver on my CZ7. It doesn't happen much but I did dig an old pull tab up at 8" today and it was showing silver. Maybe that was because it was 8" down.

 

[Montana Jim]

I'm not sure if all detectors do this but since I've got the pull tabs discriminated they now show up as silver on my CZ7. It doesn't happen much but I did dig an old pull tab up at 8" today and it was showing silver. Maybe that was because it was 8" down.

My feeling is that at 8 inches almost everything reads goofy... and not dead-on.

I'm sure 47 Whites & Minelab owners will now chime-in and tell you I'm a liar. LMAO

 

[BuckleBoy]

I'm not sure if all detectors do this but since I've got the pull tabs discriminated they now show up as silver on my CZ7. It doesn't happen much but I did dig an old pull tab up at 8" today and it was showing silver. Maybe that was because it was 8" down.

My feeling is that at 8 inches almost everything reads goofy... and not dead-on.

I'm sure 47 Whites & Minelab owners will now chime-in and tell you I'm a liar. LMAO

Could be, but THIS Fisher and Tesoro user will agree with you. At 8 inches, everything reads all funky on my TID/VDI/ID/SIGNAGRAPH/SPECTRUM meter thingy Well...actually, my meter on both machines always says "beep."

-Buckleboy

 

[Tom_in_CA]

You ask, since metal detectors find "metal" anyhow, what the difference is between a machine known to be better for relics, vs coins, since "both are metal". The answer is that no one metal detector's electronic design makes it equally able to excell in high conductors, vs low conductors, at the same time. Yes, some are good cross-overs, but generally, a machine that is a killer on silver coins, for instance, would have a harder time with chincy thin little gold chains, for example. Likewise, a detector designed to be good on little teensy gold earing studs, chains, charms, etc.... would not get a silver dime as deep as the afore-mentioned machine. So some machines excell at low conductors, and are perhaps better at sniping around and through iron, while other machines, though they might mask more and target-average worse, will get silver coins the deepest (when they are un-obstructed anyhow )

So, whereas coins (barring nickels) read up mid to high range, relics can read all over the TID spectrum. So when a guy is going out with the "relic" mindset (not going to pass anything, no matter what the TID, since some "relics" can be down in the foil range), he might not need/want the machine that is known for depth on high conductors. AND he may be in an environment where he needs to see in and around iron better. A power-house silver hunter might mask too much there, hence the "relic" machine would be better suited, just on that basis alone.

Hope that answers your 1st question.

On your second question, about the CZ7, the CZ line has taken some criticism over the years about its tendency to have weak TID. So yes, sometimes nails will ID up as coins, or other such mis-ID'd crossovers. There are some tricks up a few CZ user's sleeves, but basically, it is just weak ID after about the first 6" or so. Yes, all machine's ID's weaken at deeper depths, but the CZs have a bit more rap for this.

 

[TXDIRTFISHER]

Thanks for the info Tom....that helps.

 

[robert roy]

I have to agree with everything I heard so far.
A good all around macine that will relic hunt and coin hunt is the Ace 250. You have a custom mode too so you can notch out what you don't want. If your trying to decide what detector to get (you may looking for a new one ) The Ace is the way to go if you don't already have one.. I haven't used the new F2 yet so I can't speak from any experience. I have read good reviews however.

The Ace 250 with the standard 6x9 coil will give you about 6 inches depth. The only way to increase that is with a larger coil, the 9x12.

RObert R

 

[Iron Patch]

I don't think anyone has given you the bad news yet so I guess I will have to.

The best coins are found at these "relic sites" and if you're picking and choosing signals a little too much someone will be happy to follow in your footsteps and get a few you missed.

 

[EDDE]

im both by default

 

[Green1]

i'm a coin hunter first, then relics,, i run a mxt and in old spots i dig it if it aint iron and i use no discrimination at all everytime i hunt, if there's something there, i wanna know about it..

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HIO Green: hmm what about a tin can / box full of gold coins?

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[robert roy]

Thats what I like about the Ace 250 (though I also own a MXT). With the Ace you can swith
preprogrammed operating modes and Relic hunt or switch to coin and jewelry if you like. However even in relic mode you're bound to get coins as well, so you get the best of both worlds with the Ace!

Regards
Robert R 8)