Metal Detecting Journal

www.kuraoka.org
"It's not what you find, it's what you find out." - David Hurst Thomas

I'd always wanted a metal detector. But then, I've always been a scavenger. Well, in April 2018 I at last realized my childhood dream when I found an affordable used metal detector on Craigslist. Here's all the stuff I use metal detecting, and here's my metal detector reviews and tips. This page is my journey, a blog of sorts, latest finds first. Click on any photo to see it full-size. All photos copyrighted.

01-18-21: I actually got out early enough this morning to swing the totlot of my local park before Bigboots. However, the only thing I got was a hilarious interaction with some guy walking a little dog on a long retractable leash. He spotted me and said loudly, "Take off the damn facemask, breathe the fresh air, it's healthier. F**kin' communist." Then he went on to rummage the city recycling bin for cashable bottles and cans.

Then I went to a different park, and again came up empty-handed in the totlot but popped a dime, a copper penny (1972), and two zincolns from the grass. Then, in the parking lot, I scored the fresh zincoln you see at top center. The shiny dime was found in the street on last night's walk. 34 cents in the last 12 hours, the biggest score of the year! I'm pretty sure the guy picking recyclables from the cans did better. 8-)

01-11-21: It took a determined effort, but I made it out on a Monday morning to swing the detector. Still using the Elite 2200, as the wire on the Land Ranger remains unrepaired and possibly beyond my meager capabilities. The first park I went to, my local, was already occupied by my nemesis, Bigboots, swinging the sand tot-lot. I diverted to a different park, but found nothing but trash, and not much of that to boot. Then I went to a larger park a few miles away, where the sand tot-lot showed signs of Bigboot's footprints circling the equipment. Determined to get something this morning, I went to the grass where I quickly popped a dime and a ratty but spendable zincoln, and called it a win. Because sometimes the winning is in the doing. It's as David Hurst Thomas says: "it's not what you find, it's what you find out." I found out that I have to get out earlier to beat Bigboots. I also found out that he continues to detect all the local parks early Monday morning. I suspect he has a new vehicle. And, in a potentially significant behavior change, he no longer carries a massive shovel with him when he detects city parks. Hmm, I wonder if he reads this?

12-22-20: A quick year-end coin scoop. The pandemic had everything on lockdown through much of 2020, including the parks at which I detect. Then, I made a serious pivot to archaeology as a second career path, so taking classes at City College took me away from detecting even as restrictions eased up. I got out detecting a couple times, though, but found nothing of note (just coins). But, I didn't want to let all of 2020 go unmarked. So, here it is, my year's biggest score from this very morning: a coin counter scoop!

My quick handful contained two quarters, a dime, and a nickel in U.S. coinage. Plus, a Canadian quarter and penny. A British ten-pence and five-pence. And one two-Eurocent coin. At today's exchange rates, that's about $1.07 - score! But, of more interest to me is the narrative that develops out of that, if it's all one individual, because it indicates travel to Canada, the UK, and somewhere in the EU. The long-period nature of cashing out coins, combined with the short-period nature of coin sorter caches and the year-end timing of the find, all lend support to the idea that these coins were collected by a single household unit over a period of a year or longer.

11-25-19: Back in the swing. Yeah, it's been exactly three months since I last went detecting. I topped off the batteries on the Elite 2200 (the Land Ranger is still out of commission) and headed to one of my favorite local parks to scan the tot lot. Last week's rain created patches of damp sand, so signals were bouncy with a lot of ghosts. Still, I plucked a dime (2019), two copper pennies (1977 and 1979), a zincoln, and a Hot Wheels Fairlady 2000.

The Nissan Fairlady 2000 (Datsun 2000 in the U.S.) was introduced in 1967 as a more powerful 2-liter variant of the 1.6-liter Datsun/Fairlady 1600. The design was updated in 1968 with, among other things, a taller windshield, high-back seats, and flush lifting door handles. The Datsun 2000 and 1600 roadsters were discontinued in 1970, to be succeeded by the 240Z.

The Hot Wheels Fairlady 2000 model is clearly the updated final version with motorsports modifications: the burgundy-colored plastic interior has the higher seatbacks and the body casting and paint show the newer style door handles. The die-cast metal body is painted pale yellow. The tampo is burgundy for the racing stripes and sponsor logos, with empty white circles for the racing numbers and a bit of silver for the "Fairlady 2000" markings and door handles. The wheels apparently used to have gold trim, which has worn off. That black thing in the front that looks like a license plate is actually an external oil cooler for racing; the molding shows its grille quite clearly. Other racing modifications include the enlarged wheel arches, interior roll bar, and deleted rear bumper.

The black plastic baseplate has a copyright date of 2016, but this is 2017 first-year model from the "Legends of Speed" series. The stamped base code is J41, a bit higher than the wiki-reported base codes ranging from J32 to J39 but still well within reason. The series number is DTW 94, which was the pale yellow version. There were also two pale green versions with differing wheels, window tints, and codes. The next year these colors were replaced with brighter, less period-authentic colors with bolder liveries, including a Target-exclusive red version.

Even though this one was found absolutely stuffed solid with sand, a quick rinse with water was all it needed to roll fast and straight. That's something I've noticed about Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, they really hold up well even after being buried for a while.

08-25-19: A quick detecting session in a local park. I'm still swinging the Bounty Hunter Elite 2200 with the 4" coil (I really do want to fix my Land Ranger). There were lots of trashy signals, even with iron zapped out and sensitivity dialed down to zero bars, and all the solid hits were on the low end. Late summer conditions are very dry, so if the depth reads more than 2", I don't bother - the soil is so hard and dry that whatever's down there isn't worth breaking up the top 2" of soil to reach. Still, I popped or scraped two dimes and six zincolns for 26 cents.

08-21-19: a week's worth of finds. And I mean "finds" as in "found on the street while out taking a walk," because I haven't swung the detector all month. But, it was a very lucky week for finding things anyways! It started with the dollar bill found in a parking lot. The next day's walk netted the quarter. I snagged the dime the next morning. And, the morning after that I found this hilarious coloring book for grown-ups! It was lying upside-down in the dirt by the side of the road.

I conjured up a whole scenario in which a small child finds the coloring book at one of the many Little Free Libraries in the neighborhood, and all is well until the drive home when the parent says "hey let me look at your coloring book," realizes at a glance what it is, and flings it out the open car window. At any rate, it's pretty funny. One of the pages is partly colored in. Coloring is supposed to be good for stress, so maybe I'll give it a try. Oh, and the next day I found a zincoln. So, $1.36 and a great coloring book, not bad for eye detecting!

07-15-19: a quick detecting session. With the Bounty Hunter Land Ranger out of commission, I moved the 4" "gold nugget" coil to my old faithful Bounty Hunter Elite 2200. That made it a much better machine for parks, and today I finally got out to one. I hadn't been there in a while, but things were still pretty picked over. I pulled a Hot Wheels "Rally Cat" out of the sand, and a quick zincoln from the park, and that was all I had time for.

This Rally Cat is a 2017 model, in metalflake blue with a neon green plastic baseplate and yellow tinted windows. The interior is black. Note the asymmetrical sunroof position and dissimilar side tampo decorations. Its stamped base code of K22 is close enough to the solitary wiki reported base code of K19 (plus K20 for the red version released the same year). The paint is in pretty rough shape, but the tampo is almost entirely intact. And, as is typical for recovered Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, after a quick wash it still rolls well and tracks straight.

07-03-19: Coin counter scoops! Usually there's nothing in them, but some days the universe sees fit to give you gifts. Today was one of those days, because both counters I happened to walk by had coins in their reject catchers!

One had three nickels, two dimes, a penny, a two Euro-cent piece, a one Euro-cent piece, and a washer. The Euro-cents are worth just over a cent and about 2-1/2 cents in U.S. dollars; together they'd round up to about four U.S. cents. The U.S. penny was a copper from 1962, which is cool - I like copper pennies - but it has no significant collector value over a regular zincoln. But one of the dimes ... was my first found silver, from 1964, worth about $3. Woo hoo!

The second coin counter I happened past held a clad dime. Then, getting gas, I picked up a zincoln off the ground. So that's nearly 51 cents in coins at face value, but about $3.41 in real-world value. Thank you, universe!

06-17-19: Yeah, it's been a while. Things got busy - I've been taking college classes so I haven't had time to detect. Also, another battery holder wire broke on my Bounty Hunter Land Ranger, right at the holder so it's hard to tape-splice. Plus, I think the wires themselves are old and brittle, so even if I could tape-splice it together, it'll soon break somewhere else. So, I need to buy some wire, borrow a soldering iron, disassemble the case, and rewire the battery holder.

04-24-19: First-year round-up! I've been metal detecting for exactly one year, and here's what I've found!

First, the coins.
Quarters: 55 = $13.75
Dimes: 124 = $12.40
Nickels: 9 = 45 cents
Pennies: 268 = $2.68
Total: $29.28

Even though I go metal detecting at public parks (not the more lucrative beaches), for fun, typically for less than 30 minutes at a time, and only a few times a week ... I've actually found enough money to pay for one of my used detectors!

We can further divide those coin categories. For instance, one of those dimes is the very first coin I recovered with the detector, one year ago today. And while 209 of those pennies are modern zinc alloys, 59 are pre-1982 coppers, including one 1959, the first year of the Lincoln Memorial reverse, and two wheaties, a 1957 and a chewed up 1945. And, one of those nickels is dated 1940, so far the oldest coin I've found with the metal detector.

Finding a wheat-back penny was one of the items on my "Stuff I Want To Find" list, so I was thrilled to find my first exactly one month after my very first find. Other things on the list remaining to be found include a dollar coin, a half-dollar coin, any silver coin, a buffalo nickel, and any gold object.

One item on my wanna-find list is a working watch. I collect old watches, so finding one would be the perfect convergence of hobbies. In fact, I did find a generic fitness tracker watch. I tried to locate the owner, but when no one claimed it I downloaded the app and started using it myself. It's pretty nice; I have it set to give me a sedentary alert after 30 minutes, with a daily step goal of 12,000 steps. I wear it every day, so it's the most-useful thing I've found while detecting. And I updated my wish list to unearthing a mechanical watch.

Another item on my wanna-find list is a Matchbox car. I've collected them since I was a kid, so, again, a convergence of hobbies. I found several Hot Wheels and other die-cast metal cars before I found a Matchbox Lamborghini Diablo from the 2005 Superfast collection. It was followed a bit later by a S.W.A.T. Truck from the 2017 regular collection.

I've also found some other cool relics, including a metal doll's teacup and a Roman find! Yes, Roman: it's an enameled pot metal souvenir charm from the Roma Colosseo, so I'm counting it as a Roman find because it is a Roman find. On the other hand, some found relics might be classified as trash, but they're interesting to me.

Of course, what counts as a relic may be entirely in the eye of the beholder. Still, some of that's solid copper and brass, so ... scrap value! (Or not.)

As relics, smashed souvenir pennies belong in a category of their own. Here are my detector finds: Midway Museum, Maritime Museum, and Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

In play areas, I occasionally uncover plastic toys that contain metal screws, axles, or clips ... or not. Among others, here are a Hasbro Littlest Pet Shop Butterfly #801 from 2007, a Peppa Pig Build And Play Rebecca Rabbit, and and a Dinosaur Train car with Morris Stegosaurus. I've also picked up two plastic sand toys that I use to rootle through sand, dirt, and bark.

I've also found odd bits of costume jewelry, nothing silver or gold yet though. Almost all of it gets claimed by my wife. A small rhinestoned butterfly earring is now sparkling up her work ID badge, and she occasionally wears the lavender cat snap charm bracelet.

I've mentioned some coin sorter finds on this page, including foreign coins, a steel penny, a wheat penny from 1935, and another smashed souvenir penny, but those aren't included in my detector counts. Neither are the finds I've made walking the dog or running errands.

While metal detecting, I've also found and disposed of countless pull tabs, bottle caps, shredded cans, bits of wire, rusty nails, steel pegs, screws, wadded-up foil, and other metallic trash. No matter what, I always leave the area a little cleaner than it was before.

Looking back through my log to see my progress as a detectorist, it appears I went from digging for finds to coin popping within the first month, and haven't dug a hole since. If there's one thing I'm proudest of, it's that I'm now pretty good at popping coins and leaving no trace. There's still room for improvement, particularly on speed, but that will come with practice.

I've meant to get to the beach for some detecting, but it's been a full year and I haven't. I've taken the detector to the beach twice, but both times opted for other activities with family. Maybe this summer, although traveling 30 minutes each way doesn't really fit into my way of detecting just now.

Finally, what is the plan with the money? Counting up everything I've found (which includes $7 in bills found separately on various walks), it adds up to nearly $50 in coins and bills over the year. Well, here's the thing. My wife and I want to take the Coast to Coast Walk, a trip across England. It's our dream vacation: walk all day through gorgeous countryside, stop at a pub for lunch, then have a comfy bed awaiting us, with our luggage, at night. Ahhh. All the money I find, detecting or otherwise, goes toward that trip. It's not going to fund the trip, but it'll certainly buy us a meal or two along the way. And that's a great payout: to think that one day, we'll be sitting in a picturesque little pub having a ploughman's on metal detecting.

04-22-19: Hoppin' down the bunny trail! I went to my local the morning after Easter Sunday, to see what, if anything, might be there. The last time I hit a park the day after the city's egg hunt, it was stripped bare, which seems natural for an area that just had crowds of children scouring the ground for prizes. I swept the play area, aware by their tracks that Paul and maybe Mr. Peanut had been there before me.

Well, what do you know, I found two Easter eggs! That was all, so I continued my hunt elsewhere, and popped two dimes and two zincolns, plus I picked up a third Easter egg and an earring! The earring is marked "AMDACO (?) MEXICO" on the reverse and is almost certainly not silver. For one thing, as big as it is (1-3/8" in diameter), it rang up as a pulltab. I think this much silver, even low-grade stuff, would ring up in the silver range. It feels way too light. It's not hallmarked. Finally, the turquoise-colored inlay seems like a colored plastic resin, with embedded pieces of fake abalone shell. The iridescence is pretty good though.

And what was in those eggs?

Score! Two of the eggs held three quarters each, and one held jelly beans.

I ended my post-egg hunt with six quarters, two dimes, two zincolns, and what could make a nice decorated pull tab for a pack zipper. That's $1.72, my biggest one-hunt total so far, and my first six-quarter day - thank you Easter Bunny!

04-14-19: Post egg hunt treasure hunt. I detected my local the morning after the spring egg hunt. In the play area, I found nothing but detectorist prints. I've started naming the other local detectorists by their footprints. There's Mr. Peanut, because his shoes leave tracks that look like gigantic peanut shells. There's Paul Simon, who leaves a diamond tread ("I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes"). And there's Big Boots, who was absent; I hope he's OK. One joyous day we'll accidentally meet, do that sheepish sideways glance, and hunch off in opposite directions. Detectorists are sort of solitary creatures. I looked back at my tracks, and wondered what they'd name me. Possibly, because of a search pattern that skirts around areas that have obviously been searched recently, "Wanders Around Aimlessly." Yeah, that probably fits.

Since the play area was a bust, I went into the park itself and joined the park workers doing cleanup. In addition to picking up a bagful of metallic wrappers and streamers, pop top tabs, and other trash, I popped four dimes, two nickels, four copper pennies, and two zincolns, all in a fairly small search area. No top-of-the-surface finds, though, which is a little unusual but not entirely unexpected given that the park just had a bunch of children scouring the ground for colored eggs - I doubt any freshly dropped coins would have been missed!

04-08-19: Back to start. Just for fun today I tried detecting a public park play area with my first detector, a Bounty Hunter Elite 2200, after several weeks using a Bounty Hunter Land Ranger with a 4" search coil.

04-04-19: A rest is as good as some change. I'd been seeing what happens if I hit my local every morning for a few days straight. Well, what happened was, I found stuff the first day, and nothing thereafter. So, I went to a different local park for a change, and change is what I got. First, I hit a Hot Wheels car and a zincoln. Then, I popped three more zincolns, one copper penny (1982D; they made both copper and zinc-core pennies that year), and a quarter!

The Hot Wheels car is an El Viento, #4 of 10 in the 2017 Experimotors series. It was Hot Wheels' take on an electric supercar. This particular find is missing its pop-off translucent plastic canopy. It has a metalflake gray body with black tampo, black plastic chassis, and purple chrome wheels. The missing canopy was tinted purple with a tampo electronic circuit on the top, and composed most of the car's upper body design from between the front fenders through the passenger compartment to the rear fenders and spoiler. A cutaway in the canopy exposed the "electric motor." Some cool things include a centrally located driver in front of two passengers, and an adjustable front splitter. You can see the metal two-position lock for the black plastic splitter in the chassis view. The stamped base code of K08 is higher than the other base codes on the Hot Wheels collector's wiki.

03-31-19: My second Matchbox car! I detected a couple parks today before it got hot, and plucked a fresh zincoln and a buried Matchbox car from a play area, and popped three more zincolns, a dime, and a quarter. I also filled in two MASSIVE holes left directly under a climbing structure by someone who walks methodical patterns through sand play areas. Hmm. Somewhere out there may be a detectorist with more equipment than manners.

I'm a lifelong collector of Matchbox cars. This one is a S.W.A.T. Truck, 2017 model #MB69 in the Heroic Rescue series. It has a white plastic body with blue and gray tampo, blue windows and "lights," and a metallic gray metal chassis (which is what set off the detector).

There were two major production variations of this S.W.A.T. Truck. The first (manufacturer #MB830) was produced from 2011 to 2016 and had a metal back panel that matched the chassis. It was available in various colors and liveries. The second (manufacturer #MB824) was produced 2017-2018, and had a plastic back panel that matched the windows. It was available in white (2017 #MB69) and green (2018 #MB74) variants. The S.W.A.T. Truck is not in the current 2019 series.

The 6-spoke wheels on this version were originally painted/plated metallic blue, which has since worn off. Because the body is plastic, it shows minimal wear, although the wheels and bent rear axle show that it was heavily played with. The baseplate says copyright 2015 Mattel, but it's actually a 2017 release. Also, the printed base code is J50, a lot higher than the single wiki-reported base code of J38.

What's quite intriguing about this model, is the gun shield on top. There's a hole in the body directly behind it for a roof-mounted gun, but it's plugged. It makes me think maybe Matchbox had originally designed this toy with a mounted gun, which was removed late in the design cycle due to durability or safety issues (very likely with such a small plastic projection), cost (also very possible), or a rising social trend against toy guns (a possible contributing factor).

So today's haul: 39 cents and a cool Matchbox car!

03-27-19: Life lessons. Due to time constraints, I metal detected a pounded tot lot just down the street, a place where I can usually identify one to two fellow detectorists by their footprints. It always seems like they were there right before me, but they might be thinking the same thing when they see my footprints.

Footprints are worth tuning into when detecting in the sand, because they really do tell a story. The squirrel was especially busy in one spot, I suspect a scattered snack spill. But the pigeon, or perhaps a small crow, was striding quite purposefully.

Human detectorist tracks aside, I'm learning that well-used tot lots get replenished with finds almost every nice day, and we have a lot of nice days in San Diego. So even though someone detected this site yesterday, there could be fresh drops today. The timing aspect really comes down to luck of the draw.

In this case, the fresh drop was the most coins I've encountered in what seemed like a single spill. OK, they were just pennies, but when I stopped - because the parks guy needed to work in the area I was in - I had rounded up 25 of them, three of them coppers (1973, 1978, and 1981), plus a dime (2001), all Denver mint coins!

I also found, in another area, an adorable lavender cat snap charm bracelet. The metal faux-enameled cat charm snaps onto a metal holder, so the charms are interchangeable. The beads are plastic on a stretchy band. When my detector first uncovered it, I only saw the beads and wondered why it set off the detector; it wasn't until I pulled it out that I realized it had a hefty metal charm. The bracelet is definitely adult sized, because it fits me loosely. It's not valuable jewelry; I found an identical bracelet (without a charm) on Amazon in an assortment of 6 for $12.95, and faux-enameled metal snap charms run anywhere from $3 to $8.

The cat charm can be pivoted into any orientation, horizontal, vertical, or my favorite, looking at me with a cocked head. Personally, I think this is a very cool find.

03-24-19: Even a pounded park can be productive. I noticed lots of fresh detectorist prints in the sand, so after a cursory scanabout I went farther afield and had a pleasant time gently popping coins. I got two quarters, two dimes, three copper pennies (1972, 1979, and 1982), and five zincolns. The mint changed from copper to zinc-core pennies in 1982, so pennies from that year were made from both metals; this one is a copper large-date variant from the Denver mint.

I also got a toy! The detector picked up the tiny metal screws and clips used in its construction; it rang up as trash but the coil batted it into the open. It's Rebecca Rabbit from Peppa Pig, in a discontinued "Build And Play" variant that has clip hands instead of the three-fingered hands of most Peppa Pig series toys. Her arms and head pivot, and her legs are articulated as a unit so she can sit or stand. These toys were designed to go with buildable settings, and were sold individually bagged at a retail price of $8-$10, making it one of the more expensive toys I've found.

03-19-19: Biggest coin spill and first Matchbox car! Yesterday I hit two parks, and got to both ahead of a fellow detectorist! I saw him roll up, spot me swinging, and move on. But, I still got only two pennies and a huge chunk of the casing for a Master lock. Being first on-site doesn't guarantee finding anything! It's catch as catch can in public parks, and all in good fun (except for people who leave holes).

Maybe I'm feeling generous just now because today I scored well, including my biggest coin spill find: two quarters, a nickel, and three zincolns, all in a heap, plus a dime and a Matchbox car found separately.

I've collected Matchbox cars since I was a child, so finding a Matchbox car was one of the top things on my wanna-find list. I've found three Hot Wheels and a couple generics, but this is my first Matchbox. It feels good to put a check mark next to that one.

The Matchbox car is a yellow Lamborghini Diablo, #72 in the Superfast collection of 2005. It has a black interior and clear windows. This variant is unusual in that it has factory yellow-painted ten-spoke wheels. At first I thought the yellow was a home paint job because it didn't perfectly match the body, but all the photos of this model still in the blister pack show the same slight color difference. This model was also released in dark metallic purple (2004) and dark metallic green (2005) variants with chrome wheels. Originally, it came in a blister pack with a matching printed box - the iconic matchbox from which the toy got its name. Each variant was a so-called "limited edition" of 15,500, and retailed at a slightly higher price point than the standard series cars.

The Matchbox collector's wiki indicates that this model has a yellow painted metal chassis, but I'm fairly certain this one is yellow-painted ivory-toned plastic. The Superfast series of 2004-5 differs from the regular series of 1992-4 (also yellow) in that it has the updated wheels, no tampo decoration, and more-accurate painted representations of front and side marker lights and taillights. It's the same casting, though, with an opening engine bay cover revealing a molded black plastic V-12.

The chassis plate reveals a Matchbox logo, but copyright 1991 Mattel, Inc. This one bears the white printed chassis code 0615 EA positioned between the copyright slug and "Made in China;" this code's position varies. The 1:59 refers to the scale; the actual car is 59 times bigger.

Condition on this little Lambo isn't very good, but it's 14 years old, and has clearly been carried around and played with a lot, which is the best thing for any toy. And, it's my first Matchbox car!

03-12-19: Two days, three parks, not much. Suddenly, all my neighborhood parks are getting absolutely pounded by that detectorist I met and at least one other detectorist. I have gotten skunked nearly every time. What's worse, someone's leaving holes, which is just uncool. I've filled maybe a dozen of them over the past couple weeks, and I'm always pissed off that passers-by might think I dug them. As I've said, I don't dig holes; I pop coins, leaving no trace at all. Look: there are no Roman finds here, no Aztec treasure, in fact there was nothing in this part of San Diego until the 1960s, and even then the land was scraped, filled with clean dirt, and topped with rip rap before the topsoil and turf went down. There is nothing of historical value worth digging a hole for, so there's no reason to dig one except boorishness or (as was my case when I first started metal detecting) ignorance. Please, fellow suburban park detectorists: learn to pop coins!

I was hoping to pull a quarter out of a play area, and the detecting gods granted my wish. Oh, they are so funny, those detecting gods.

Gathered in this photo are the finds from three parks over two days. From one park came two dimes, one copper penny (1976), one zincoln, and the plastic play coin. From another came a single desperation zincoln. And from a third came a quarter and the top part of an enameled "YEAH!" badge. I like that enthusiasm; too bad there's no way to mount it.

02-24-19: Bounty Hunter Land Ranger with 4-inch Gold Nugget coil. The other day I installed the 4-inch "Gold Nugget" coil on my Bounty Hunter Land Ranger. This smaller coil, as it says right on top of it, detects all metals, not just gold.

A smaller coil is better for small targets like gold nuggets and flakes, but it's also better for locating shallow coins and discriminating out trash. As a gross oversimplification, the wider the coil, the deeper the signal can penetrate with reasonable accuracy; with a smaller coil you give up penetration but you pick up responsiveness and accuracy for smaller, shallower targets. It's a worthwhile trade-off for my local parks and play areas.

So far, the first few outings with the 4-inch coil seem to be validating its fitness for the task: I'm finding more poppable targets, more quickly, than I did before. As a bonus, the smaller coil lets me work much closer to playground structures.

Here's the Land Ranger's control box display showing the settings I typically use for parks. It's in Disc/Target mode, pre-set #1 (hence the "R" under Iron/Foil), with the sensitivity dialed all the way down to 2. This still finds targets too deep to pop, but at least it seems to max out at about 6", and it filters out a lot of trash targets and underground park infrastructure. When I detect in tot lots, I move the sensitivity back up to 4, but dial it down when I'm right up against a play structure. I frequently switch to the Smart Trac mode for rough pinpointing.

You might notice the gold-colored headphone adapter underneath the control box. It stays on the detector. They're cheap, so I always carry a couple spares.

02-22-19: The Bounty Hunter Land Ranger extended my quarters streak. I detected a local park, and in seconds pulled a toy car out of the tot lot. The rest of the tot lot turned up nothing, so I moved to the grass, where there were a ton of signals to sort out. A parks guy came by and we said hi; I really think it helps that I don't carry a shovel.

Anyways, I ended up popping two quarters, a piece of a third quarter, five dimes, one bent-up nickel, and four zincolns. I was getting so spoiled I was leaving most of the zincoln signals alone because there was so much other, better, stuff. The brass plumbing fittings were surprises each time: a male-to-male threaded connector, another connector or end piece, and a cap marked "Pete's Plug." A little research turned up that a Pete's Plug is a device that lets you take pressure or temperature readings from a line without leaving a gauge in place. The part I found is just the top cap, which spins off, revealing an inner valve into which you'd plug a measuring device.

I also found a little Star Wars charm. It's just plated pot metal, but it's hefty and nicely finished with a two-tone faux enamel Galactic Empire emblem. You can see it in the group photos above, but here's a closer look at the front and back.

The toy car is a cheap die-cast police car from Fast Lane, which was a Toys R Us exclusive brand made in China. Most were sold in boxed or carrier-cased sets priced below similar sets from Matchbox, Hot Wheels, or Johnny Lightning. The car's metal body, plastic baseplate, design, wheels, and axles are definitely below the Hot Wheels/Matchbox car standard. Still, it's a neat little find. It's an older Fast Lane model, from 2013, and seems to be a genericized Dodge Charger based on the sixth-generation-ish C-pillar and seventh-generation-ish taillights decal. The baseplate has the code EA-001.

So my total this morning was two quarters, five dimes, a nickel, and four zincolns for a total of $1.09. Plus some brass, a Galactic Empire charm, a toy police car, and part of a third quarter. Hey, I've had two-quarter days, and I've had three-quarter days, but this is my first 2-1/2-quarter day!

02-19-19: Some treasures don't fit in a finds box. I took the Land Ranger out for a spin at a local park, and noticed a delicate lacing of frost on the weeds, a rare sight in San Diego and precious enough in itself.

Another rare find was pulling a nickel out of the tot-lot. My Elite 2200 display lumped nickels and pull tabs together, so I rarely bothered trying to recover them. But, the Land Ranger's display separates nickels and pull tabs, so I went for it, and lo and behold, got a nickel!

02-15-19: My second metal detector! I found another used metal detector on Craigslist, a Bounty Hunter Land Ranger (not the newer "Pro"). At $20 for the detector, standard coil, and 4" nugget coil, I couldn't pass it up, especially as the seller was nearby. It's an older unit, but still an upgrade from my Bounty Hunter Elite 2200.

I downloaded a PDF of the owner's manual and spent some time cleaning and playing with my new-to-me detector, learning to adjust the settings. Then, I went to a local park to play with it for a few minutes.

I spent a fair amount of time just playing with the various settings and adjustments. My first solid shallow reading (poppable target) was weird, but made perfect sense once I'd made the retrievals: two zinc pennies stuck together, with a second penny a short distance away. I later popped an easy quarter, and then a beat-up copper penny (1966).

At that point the new-but-long-stored batteries I'd installed were failing, so I packed it in, stopping on the way home to buy fresh alkaline C cells. Unfortunately, when I pulled out the battery holder I broke one of the wires, but that was an easy repair. I've compared the Land Ranger to my Bounty Hunter Elite 2200 on this page.

And, 29 cents in maybe 20 minutes is a great maiden voyage for this new-to-me detector. I can't wait to try the smaller coil!

02-13-19: Three quarters day #3! I seem to be on a quarters streak, which is fabulous good fortune that I'm loving while it lasts. This morning, before the forecast rains came in, I detected a local park and immediately pulled a quarter out of the tot lot. Nothing else came from the play area, so I moved to the leaf litter and quickly recovered quarter #2 and a dime. That's 60 cents!

A bit later, still hoping to beat the incoming rain, I took the dog on a four-mile walk. Thanks to the daylight, I found a lot more than I do on our usual night walks: a red Guitar Center plectrum (feels like a medium weight), a zincoln, and my third quarter of the day! The clouds started leaking for the last half of the walk, and as I passed the park I noticed a park worker raking and bagging the leaf litter, so I'd made my recoveries there just in time!

Technically, today is a mixed record where those three quarters are concerned because only two were found with the metal detector. But, even though one doesn't count toward my detector totals, it's still my second consecutive three-quarter day and my third in two weeks - and that's worth celebrating! Woo hoo!

02-12-19: Three quarters #2! This morning I detected a local park, and got three quarters for a second time! I also popped two zincolns, a copper penny (1978), a brass sprinkler head, and a bunch of metallic trash, most of which I knew was trash before I recovered it but I wanted to retrieve it so I could throw it away. I've pulled a lot of nails and other suburban shrapnel out of tot lots and places where people will be walking barefoot come summertime.

So, 78 cents and a cleaner park, not bad for a quick detecting session!

Oh, and yesterday I had a nice coin counter scoop: a dime, a nickel, four zincolns, and two car wash/vacuum tokens.

01-31-19: Nice people and great finds! Today's entry actually begins yesterday. I had gone to a local park where I ran into a city parks maintenance guy, who was very friendly and chatted with me for some time about metal detecting and finds and so on. He told me that the Parks & Rec Department has a metal detector, an older green Garrett, which they use when someone reports an item lost. He said they occasionally find the object but usually not because it's such an old machine. (I rather suspect training would help, although I'm also sure they get sent on a lot of wild-goose chases for items that were actually left in cars or put in other bags.)

The parks guy also told me that it's NOT illegal to metal detect in city parks, as long as holes are covered up. Holes are the big issue (and since I pop coins, I create no holes at all). And, he told me about a detectorist at another park, an older fellow who was carrying a folding shovel and all kinds of gear, who was apparently asked to leave.

Well, today I'm pretty sure I met that detectorist at a different park. Older guy, top-end detector, fully equipped, digging knife, folding shovel, the whole nine yards. I may have seen him before, working the tot lot in yet another park in Santee. I was in the tot lot and he came over to say hi, and we chatted for some time. He said he's been detecting for over 30 years, and owns several $1,000+ detectors, wow! He also said he used to come to that particular park almost every day, but lately has been going to the beach instead. He was friendly and encouraging, and all in all struck me as the kind of person who would be careful about filling his holes. That confirms to me that it's the mere presence of a shovel that triggers a reaction from parks staff.

Anyways, it was a banner day for more than just the friendly conversation with a fellow detectorist. There was a digging project going on just outside the tot lot, and one small pile of dirt lay outside the temporary fencing. So I scanned it, got a hit, and quickly pulled out a very dirty quarter! That hunch paid out well.

In the tot lot I got two more quarters, shiny ones, and a shiny dime, plus a Hot Wheels car (more about that in a bit). I also recovered a very sturdy little orange plastic toy sand spade, just the thing for rootling around in tot lots or even at the beach. As I walked out I scanned some leaf litter and pulled a grimy zincoln from underneath.

So, that makes a total of 86 cents, my first three quarter day, and one of my biggest scores yet out of a tot lot.

OK, the Hot Wheels car I uncovered is a 1956 Porsche 356A Outlaw, made in 2016. It's one of two Porsche 356A Outlaws in Hot Wheels' Showroom Series; this one is silver and the other is black and gold. This toy is apparently the second-oldest Porsche model made by Hot Wheels so far (the oldest is a 1952 Porsche 550 Spyder which was originally part of a Porsche 50th Anniversary set Hot Wheels released in 1999). The lightly stamped base code on my find is J04, which slots neatly into the reported base codes of J03, J06, J07, and J08.

But wait, there's more. When I went to the grocery store, I pulled a smashed penny out of the coin machine! It's from the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, and it's included with the metal detecting finds because it was found.

Some days you just get lucky.

01-29-19: Smashed penny and 1959 penny! I wouldn't normally post a photo of such small beans, but I wanted to show again the difference in deterioration between a copper penny and zinc alloy pennies.

This is the result of less than an hour detecting at a local park. Actually, I had to leave for work just as I came into an area with lots of good signals, so I'll be back. I popped two dimes, four zincolns, and a copper penny from 1959, the first year with the Lincoln Memorial on the reverse ("tails" side). The copper penny is older than I am, yet note its condition compared to the zinc pennies (1989, 2016, 2016, and 2017).

My pinpointer couldn't locate one of the dimes; the grass was very thick, so I couldn't get the pinpointer into good steady contact with the soil. Instead I relied on the detector and experience, and placed my screwdriver right on top of it first try - a minor triumph. It's a 1995 dime from the Pennsylvania mint, so it's traveled a bit.

I also popped only my second smashed penny, this one a souvenir from Old Town showing the sailing ship Sierra Estrella. Given how it registered on the metal detector and its heft, I'm pretty sure it's copper.

01-27-19: First solid detecting session of 2019 and new biggest coin haul. Since January 1, I'd only managed three short metal detecting sessions due to rain and responsibilities. According to my log, I've popped a total of one dime, five zinc pennies, and a fishing weight. So this morning was my first solid detecting session of 2019, and it was a good one: my biggest detecting coin haul yet, $1.38!

From the park, I popped five dimes and seven zincolns, for a total of 57 cents, and a black Paper Mate 0.7mm mechanical pencil, always handy. I also popped a dog license tag which rang up as a quarter. (I'll be trying to track down the owner because replacement license tags cost $5 - I know because we had to buy one.) There were plenty of other high tones, but they were too deep; I never dig in public parks any more, so if I can't pop it I leave it.

I was actually pretty well satisfied at that point, but decided to try the tot lot before heading home. I secretly hoped to score a Matchbox car after finding two Hot Wheels cars in the same area two months ago. There were no buried toy cars but I got three dimes, all in the same general area. Then I found a red plastic double-ended rake/scoop, which a few minutes later I used to sift through the sand near a play structure to pick out two shiny quarters! One final zincoln rounded out the tot lot finds for a total of 81 cents.

So today's total is $1.38 in coins, a useful mechanical pencil, and a new tot lot tool for my detecting bag, a nice haul for an hour or so outdoors enjoying a gorgeous sunny San Diego morning!

01-15-19: A coin counter score. The rain is keeping me in, so a coin counter score is my biggest find of the year so far. But it's a great scoop: a handful of Mexican coins and a handful of U.S. coins!

In U.S. coinage, there were 2 quarters, one dime, a nickel, and four zincolns for a total of 69 cents. But wait, there's more.

Because there were also two wheat pennies. One copper from 1935, and one steel from 1943, both San Francisco Mint. According to the Coin Tracker website, they have collectible values of 40 cents and 65 cents respectively in "average condition," but my 1935 copper looks pretty rough. However, even at half those values, that brings the score to $1.22.

What brings me joy on this wet gray day, is I've always wanted to find a steel penny. It's on the hit list in my metal detecting log. Now I've found one, just not with the metal detector. Does it count? Should it count? I'm gonna say it counts, at least until I find a steel penny with the detector, at which point that one will really count. As to the 1935 penny, it's the oldest coin I've found.

Next is the bunch of Mexican coins. One is a five-centavo piece from 1973, which is pre-revaluation so it has no monetary value today. What's left are two five-peso coins, two two-peso coins, two one-peso coins, one 50 centavo coin, and one 10 centavo coin. The ten centavo coin is worth about 1/2 cent at today's exchange rate, so that's a hint as to the value of the lot. The five peso coins are worth about 26 cents U.S., so they're like quarters. Still, Mexican coins worth about 87 cents US ain't bad.

And, it brings the total to $2.09, a mighty good haul for a rainy day!

12-02-18: The week's reckoning. I went out to a park this morning and popped some clad: two quarters, two dimes, and two zincolns. Quarters are fairly rare to find; this was only my third two-quarter session since I started detecting! To celebrate my first week detecting in over four months, here are my week's total finds. I'm including my coin machine find (a dime) and a street find (a penny) because, well, they were found.
Quarters: 6
Dimes: 11
Copper pennies: 2
Zincolns: 13
Relics: two Hot Wheels cars, indexed twist-on dial thing, a double-ended brass spring clip

Total clad coin count: $2.75

Find of the week: Hot Wheels "Loopster" Glow Wheels model with an atypical/unrecorded set of baseplate/chassis codes.

I didn't detect every day, at most for an hour or so, and most of my weekday hunts consisted of 30-45 minutes swinging the coil in the morning after school drop-off.

12-01-18: A quick morning's metal detecting. The recent rain made for excellent soil penetration with the metal detector, a mixed blessing because even with the detector's sensitivity turned all the way down it locates objects too deep to easily pop and I don't dig up our parks. Still, about an hour detecting in a previously unexplored part of the park turned up a lot of trash, including what seemed to be shards from an exploded propane tank, one quarter, two fresh dimes, and three corroded zincolns. When zinc pennies corrode like this, they produce bouncy signals that read as high as deeper dimes or quarters, at least on my detector. But the find of the day was that heavy brass double-ended spring clip, a surface find hidden by grass. I cleaned and oiled it, and it's now ready to serve all our double-clippage needs.

11-29-18: 15 minutes detecting, 30 minutes (and counting) of online research. I tried to detect a local park this morning, but the rain drove me back to the car. But, in the few minutes before the rain really ramped up I popped a quarter (1977), a dime (2006), and a copper penny (1970) which rung up as zinc. Also, an odd twist-on indexed ring. When I first popped it I thought it was a small diver's watch bezel, but it's clearly not because the tabs are at each eighth. Also, it's rather crudely cast and finished, so I suspect it's a disposable piece of something consumable, like a gas or liquid canister. Every other tab is marked: (going clockwise) "UL" (looks like the Underwriter's Laboratory logo), "TB," "SA," and "15." There are 11 hash indexes between each marked tab. The reverse side has index hashes but no lettering on the tabs. It appears to be made to twist down in one turn or less. I always enjoy researching my finds, but I haven't gotten enough traction yet to even get started on identifying this one.

11-25-18: Getting back into the swing of things. Yes, it's really been over four months since I last swung the detector. A lot of things happened: my car died and had to be replaced, one kid left for college out of state, and more. But, on a fine Sunday morning after Thanksgiving I got out to a neighborhood park and popped 71 cents, one quarter, four dimes, and six zincolns. Also, a brass D-ring and the top to a sprinkler control valve. And, I got my first real score out of a sand tot-lot: the quarter, plus two Hot Wheels cars! They are a red Audi RS6 Avant and what may be a rare variant of a black Loopster.

According to the Hot Wheels collector's wiki, the black Glow Wheels Loopster with the passenger with the raised arms was produced in 2017 and should have a toy code of DTY37 and a stamped base code of K22 or K23. This one has the original 2014/15 "new model" toy code of CFG88, but the stamped base code of the 2017 model with the passenger's hands down, K24. Ooo.

I'm a lifelong Matchbox car collector, so these details are not only interesting from a production standpoint, but also - as with coins and stamps - can affect value. Most likely this particular little car isn't actually all that rare, just unreported, because most people don't get excited over the fine print on the bottom of a toy car. (The red Audi station wagon, by the way, is a standard 2017 model.)

My hypothesis is that Mattel had a few of the old chassis baseplates left over, and used them, quickly stamped with an updated base code, as part of a 2017 production run, some of or all of which had the arms-up passenger.

The Loopster is also interesting because the model name "Loopster" appears nowhere on chassis baseplate; it was on the original packaging and also on some variants' livery. It's designed so you can connect several together, to create a roller coaster using standard Hot Wheels track. The wheels on this version glow in the dark, quite brightly too!

07-08-18: Detecting Mom's house, Part 2. Another visit to Mom reaped another small harvest in her back yard. In coins, just two rotten zincolns and a macerated copper wheatie from 1945. The relics, though, were interesting: a key tab from a Bank of America Commercial Trust Account, what may be a tiny lid for a doll's teapot (although it looks to be from a different set than the teacup below), and some sort of copper locking wedge.

06-25-18: Detecting Mom's house. On the way home from a trip to Mammoth, we stayed overnight at my Mom's house. It's a much older house than ours, so I've been eager to detect in her yard. Plus, I could retrieve deeper targets than I can in parks. I hit the back yard first. I didn't find any silver coins, but most of the coins I found dated from the late 70s, well before she bought the place. I found a dime and six pennies (5 copper, 1 zincoln). But I also found a game token from Wedges & Ledges, a bay-area maker of coin-operated games of skill, what appears to be the broken-off cone part of a candle snuffer, and - quite possibly my find of the year - a small metal doll's teacup!

Leo came up with a quarter, a nickel, 5 pennies (3 copper, 2 zincolns), a very rusted chunk of iron, and a gold-colored earring (unmarked and flaking so definitely not gold).

06-23-18: Mammoth Lakes. My extended family had a big reunion at Mammoth Lakes. I found out my metal detector is a snap to disassemble for packing and reassemble for use. I got in a little time around our condo, on the grass so I didn't do any digging, just popping. I targeted areas where people might be donning or doffing skiwear. I got a 1990 dime.

Then Leo wanted a go. I gave him some quick instructions and off he went. We didn't use headphones for his hunt so I could hear the tones and offer real-time guidance. I tagged along with the pinpointer and screwdriver for popping. He found a quarter, two pennies (a copper and a zincoln), a fired bullet, a brass cap nut, and a small padlock! Coins plus relics on his first hunt!

Here is my solitary find on the left, being overwhelmed by Leo's mass of finds on the right.

On reflection, it's a little concerning how close that bullet struck to the condo.

06-15-18: Following advice. My request on the metal detecting forum for search strategies for my neighborhood yard permission resulted in a unanimous recommendation that I run sensitivity as high as possible without getting false signals, and cherry pick the high tones (most likely to be coins and silver), with the caveat to dig repeatable mid-tones too (could be nickels or pulltabs but could also be gold).

I'm glad I took the advice and focused on high tones because there weren't many. And every one was a big chunk of metal, fairly shallow (and yes, I double-checked holes and around holes). I pulled out two small bags worth of ripped flashing, busted plumbing fixtures, broken-up electrical hardware, and pieces of what might've been lawn furniture or a barbecue grill. Every zinc signal was a nail. I found no coins, and nothing of value or interest.

Based on this experience I've concluded my neighborhood was built on a scraped virgin chaparral surface augmented by clean 1970s fill. So, there's nothing deep. And, there's little on/near the surface because houses in this neighborhood don't have much of a porch culture - most home gatherings take place indoors.

So, my first permission turned up nothing more than getting some detecting time and learning a bit about how my neighborhood was developed, which are in themselves valuable.

06-13-18: My first hunt in a neighbor's yard. I got permission from a neighbor to detect on her property prior to a major yard renovation, and this morning I got in a quick 15-20 minutes. I detected a strip close to the front door, with the sensitivity turned down to zero to (a) prevent falsing with the foundation and walls and (b) strip off the stuff near the surface. I pulled three grungy nails, two stakes, a metal flower decoration, and a crushed aluminum can. My plan was to hit the same area again going sequentially deeper, and then follow the shade to run a quick section closer to the street or in the back yard just off the patio.

My time with this site is short because the landscaping work is progressing apace. So, having found nothing of value, I asked for search strategies on an online metal detecting forum.

06-12-18: My first permission! I went metal detecting at a local park and got skunked for the first time in a while. And by skunked I don't mean I didn't find anything. It's just that everything I picked up went into my trash bag. So, good news: the park is now a bit cleaner than it was before.

On my way home, filling my car with gas I spotted a penny on the ground. Score for the day: Eyeballs 1, Metal Detector 0.

But then, back at home I spotted (eyeballs again) a homeowner down the street talking to some landscaping guys. I went over and found out that the whole front and back yards are being scraped down and re-landcaped with rock, concrete, and artificial turf. So I asked for permission to detect on her property and dig out stuff. And got it! ("Sure, pleeease, dig it all out," is actually what she said.)

Houses in my neighborhood were built in the early 70s, so it's highly unlikely there's Colonial silver or even Buffalo nickels. In fact, the whole area was pretty much empty land until it was developed, so I'm unlikely to find any historical relics of any kind.

But still, my first permission!

06-10-18: A couple hours at the park, and oldest coin found! A morning visit to a local park produced $1.15, my second-biggest score. Included in that total is a 1940 nickel, my first pre-WWII find! Unlike wartime nickels, which are part silver because nickel was needed for the war effort, this one has no metal value. But it's my oldest found coin by far, my previous oldest being a wheat penny from 1957. The other interesting thing about this nickel is, despite its appearance, it was actually a surface find. I didn't detect it, I spotted it lying under a tuft of grass. The other thing I wanted to show, was how zinc pennies corrode. I'm finding out that a very corroded zincoln produces signals that jump upwards, popping into the dime level and occasionally imitating a slightly deeper quarter.

06-08-18: The truth about metal detecting. About an hour or so at a local park produced lots of finds, but most of them were trash. Some were quite interesting, but trash nonetheless. I still can't figure out what manner of object is that smashed cap-like thing with the wire and glass bit sticking out. Some of the broken tent stakes could make for a heart-stopping hunt, if one was in the UK with Medieval spear tips to find, but here in San Diego, not so much. Still, 58 cents, including three copper pennies, of which two match our birth years!

06-07-18: My new trowel! I decided even a gardening trowel sends the wrong signal ("digging") when detecting public parks. Plus, I rarely use it any more except as a scraper for dirt and leaf litter. I thought a better tool might be an archaeologist's trowel: a short, sharpened brickie's trowel. For more about my equipment, click over to my metal detecting gear page.

06-03-18: Biggest haul yet and first Roman find! Back to the park for a dime-popping day: 10 dimes, 1 nickel, and 15 pennies including two pre-1982s. That's $1.20! Also, a black-finished steel split ring, a button marked "Hawk," a smashed penny token from the Midway Museum, and a pendant from Rome! It looks to be an actual souvenir from the Roma Colosseo, so I'm claiming it as Roman because it is. Also, today marked the first time I successfully located a coin deeper than my pinpointer could detect or my screwdriver could pop! I could tap it with the screwdriver tip, but didn't have enough shaft to work my way under it to lever it to the surface. I'm now firmly anti-digging in parks, so if I can't pop it I leave it.

06-02-18: A watch! A quick morning coin-popping session at a local park turned up 52 cents: 1 quarter, 2 dimes, 5 zincolns (modern zinc alloy pennies), 2 pre-1982 copper pennies, and the usual bag of trash. And, my first watch! It's a fitness watch that was found laying atop the grass. Yes, it works. I posted it as a found item on NextDoor and Craigslist to try to find its owner, but so far no one has tried to claim it.

05-28-18: New biggest haul! The pinpointer proved its value at a local park. In about an hour, I pulled one quarter, 5 dimes, and three zincolns for a total of 78 cents!

05-25-18: A pinpointer really helps, as does coin-popping: biggest haul and oldest coin. I recently got a cheap pinpointer from eBay, which has dramatically increased my finds and decreased my rooting-around around time because now I can pop coins with a 4" screwdriver. Here's how "coin-popping" works: after pinpointing, I probe gently with the screwdriver until I hit the coin, work the screwdriver to the edge of the coin by feel, and "pop" it to the surface. It's quick and leaves no trace. Here are my finds from under one tree at a local park: 4 dimes, 2 nickels, and 13 pennies, including 5 coppers (pre-1982), one of which was a wheat penny from 1957! Ooo, 63 cents, my biggest haul yet. And, my oldest coin so far.

05-03-18: Two quarters plus first coin "popped!" Dug two quarters, a dime, and a modern zinc alloy penny. Plus, a minor triumph, "popped" my first coin, a zincoln! Coin popping does almost no damage to the turf because there's no hole and no digging - you just use a screwdriver to locate the coin and "pop" it out! 62 cents is my current record too!

04-26-18: Found underground? Not everything I find is metal.

04-25-18: First finds! I took my metal detector to a local park for about 40 minutes, where my first good target turned up a 2005 dime! There really is treasure down there! I also dug up a 1995 dime, a 1975 (copper) penny, and a dog tag (which I returned to the owner; the identifying info is scrambled). The washer and coax connector weren't dug for, but were lying on the surface so I picked them up to throw away. I used the machine's default settings, which are all-metal mode and a sensitivity level of 2.

04-24-18: A new toy! My childhood desire for a metal detector was reignited over the past several years by exposure to Time Team and Detectorists. Well, I finally spotted this Bounty Hunter Elite 2200 on Craigslist for $30 and jumped on it. Click here to learn more about it and the rest of the stuff I use for metal detecting.

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