MauserMan
Sr. Member
I just bought a new detector, mainly for finding older coins, but I guess they all live much deeper than I would have expected. I've always been interested in coin collecting, I've gotten a lot of foreign coins from relatives who traveled abroad when I was younger. And I can remember constantly checking my change for wheaties and older silver u.s. coins. I was reminded of metal detecting when I noticed an old garage sale find at my family's beach house, a micronta 4003. I tooled around with it and enjoyed finding some change and trinkets. But as it's really just a toy, I decided to buy a nicer one to find the good stuff. I did some research, and although the B.H. T iv was only $90, it has gotten a lot of good reviews, and I really don't want to spend much more than that as a complete newbie. Boy was I excited when it arrived. That excitement has possibly changed to buyer's remorse. I've probably spent about 8 hours with it searching two pretty good locations, and haven't found jack -one broken pocket knife at about 4-5". My main site is an old restaurant/ german club that burnt down around 1950 but is now a park. I found the buildings foundations in the back woods of the park, but all I can find are nails, bottle caps, and beer cans. I found some large pieces metal junk too. The other place I searched for a little while was an old mining quarry, now conservation land. It probably stopped operating by the 20's or 30's, but it filled with water and was used as a swimming hole for a long time too. So basically, all I've managed to find is trash, and a little bit of clad. And, I really don't much want to go out for clad.
I found a 1969 memorial at one of the park's ballfields, but those are newer (the fields) and I expected the older coins to be in the back which is now woods. However, if there are decent coins there, they must be deeper. I guess one should expect that with all the leaves falling and plant life, coins dropped 80 years ago in the woods would be deeper than those on a trimmed lawn. But I've got to say, I was really hoping to find some decently old coins with the BH Tiv. Heck, silver dimes and quarters were made until '64, and even those would make me happy.
So, has anybody ever made some good and fairly consistent finds with a B.H. mid-range detector? Or are the silver coins and other pieces from the early twentieth century too deep? I really didn't think you'd need to drop $450 on a m.d. to find some decent coins. Well, I guess you learn something every day.
I found a 1969 memorial at one of the park's ballfields, but those are newer (the fields) and I expected the older coins to be in the back which is now woods. However, if there are decent coins there, they must be deeper. I guess one should expect that with all the leaves falling and plant life, coins dropped 80 years ago in the woods would be deeper than those on a trimmed lawn. But I've got to say, I was really hoping to find some decently old coins with the BH Tiv. Heck, silver dimes and quarters were made until '64, and even those would make me happy.
So, has anybody ever made some good and fairly consistent finds with a B.H. mid-range detector? Or are the silver coins and other pieces from the early twentieth century too deep? I really didn't think you'd need to drop $450 on a m.d. to find some decent coins. Well, I guess you learn something every day.
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If you can outhunt folks by using deeper, more expensive machines, then you may do ok. But you won't catch me in one. Most parks have been hit hard since the silver boom in the 1980s.
But I clean some dirt off and see a sitting figure and the date 1819. (British Halfpenny) 
At this point I'm starting to think it's a coin but not 100% sure, then a few more swings, and another good target, and I dig an even larger disk. I think no way, way too big, but when I clean the dirt I see the same figure and the date 1812. (British one penny) By this time I am over the moon and by the time I was done hunting I had another 1800s halfpenny, and a 1792 trade token, and a crotal bell. I went back in the house in disbelief at what I had found. I had never really thought much about the history here, and how far back settlement went, and just assumed late 1800s/early 1900s was about the best you could hope for detecting. That site also turned up my first great button find which was a Rev War officer button and actually paid for the $1,000 detector I had bought to find 100 year old coins. 
Shortly after that I met up with two regular hunting buds, and several more that aren't so close and we have dug a ton of neat and interesting finds. But even as much as I've found, some being rare and having some value, I'll never forget that day I dug those 4 old coppers. If you give yourself the chance to have a day like that you'll probably be telling the story of your first old coins in ten years to someone who needs to keep the motivation. You might even be able to make a post like this. 
Or a furroughed ag field where an old indian trade rancheria used to be: are you the nut who's fanatically going through the furroughs during fallow season looking for items brought to the surface by plows, and value-ing each age-indicator "woulda-coulda" that tells you a seated or reale shouldn't be far behind?
