Not only do old homes and structures provide an excellent opportunity to find old coins with an Garrett Ace 250 metal detector, they often contain a variety of interesting and sometimes valuable relics from the past such as military items, early buttons and perhaps a money cache.
Most successful relic hunters prefer to run the Ace 250 in all-metal mode so that they do not miss any good finds. This typically requires a lot of patience to dig through all of the bits of iron in order to find a lost pocket watch or other piece of the past. Relic hunting differs from other forms of metal detecting in that you want to dig all signals.
In areas with a lot of trash, it is helpful to metal detect in stages. I prefer to start with a smaller coil like the 4.5″ sniper coil. With a sniper coil it is easier to differentiate between close targets and will allow you to cherry pick the high conductors like silver coins and will also remove the more shallow iron targets.
Once the shallow targets have been removed, you can use the stock coil or one of the larger Ace 250 accessory coils to find the deeper targets. Because it can take multiple trips to clean up some of the larger sites, I prefer to concentrate on a smaller patch and clean the shallow and deep targets from the selected area on the same trip.
Old books, photographs, postcards and maps can be helpful when trying to locate places to hunt for relics. Longtime residents of an area can also provide a lot of useful information.
Remains of older structures can provide clues to the layout of the site, but at some sites there may be little evidence of prior use. At such sites, it is helpful to start with a larger coil to cover ground quickly until you start to find some targets. Patches of old nails can indicate the location of an old structure and can help you to date that section of the relic hunting site.
Once you are onto some metal finds, it is good to slow down and work out from that area. As you search an old site with your metal detector, keep an eye out for glimpses of exposed glass bottles. Some of these antique bottles can be worth quite a bit of money.
When relic hunting, it is important to be respectful of other people’s property and to obey the laws of the land. Be sure and always ask for permission to metal detect a site and always fill in your holes and remove the trash you find.
Personal note: I think that old homesteads and other structures are really cool and should be preserved for everyone’s enjoyment. In my opinion it is fun to metal detect the structures themselves, but I recommend only recovering coins and such items that are accessible without damaging or altering the structure.
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Water Hunting with a Garrett Ace 250
Garrett Ace 250 Silver Coins & Jewelry Tips