As a new coil swinging hobbyist it can be difficult to know exactly where to start! Personally I find that public beaches are a great place as well as bleachers at ball parks.

There are a tone of interesting items to be dug up, explored and you will get to maybe unearth a few relics from the past.

Often I dig up items I have no idea what they are as well. So half the fun is to try and research what your finds are.

My recent trips include a couple trips to some local ball parks in my area and a few beaches. Every time I go to one of these places I either end up going to do a 20 minute dig after work on my way home or I combine a beach day with my partner and 11 month old son and hopefully get the chance to swing a coil while we are all having some family time.

Recently I was getting off work and hit up a nearby ball diamond on my way home. I found some junk as you always will. You will quickly find out if your just getting into this hobby but I also found a few American Pennie’s one was in pretty rough shape and I couldn’t tell the year.

After doing a small amount of research I found out that this penny is most likely a zinc American penny and the USA didn’t start making Zinc Pennie’s until after 1982 so this penny is post 1982 and most likely between 1982 and 1992 making this coin between 30 & 40 years old.

And I also picked up another American penny in the same location which was a 1996 (not too old ) but still it wasn’t a price of garbage so that always makes me smile lol.

I find a lot of pennies with my machine. The Vanquish 340 tends to be great at picking out zinc and copper coins, aluminum products, and stainless steel too. Which is why when I head to a local beach frequently visited by families with young children that I find a multitude of toy cars, because toy cars are made of exactly that, %61 zinc, %36.9 plastics and %1 stainless steel.

My machine has managed to detect gold, and silver, however it has missed test gold pieces I’ve purposely put in a hole so I don’t expect it to pick up too many gold items. I will need a different machine for the precious metals In the near future I think.

It is interesting when you get into this hobby regardless of the reason you decided to start in the first place. It is interesting where your goals end up. For example, for me , my first goal was to find enough precious metals that I might make a bit of extra cash selling them on the side lol. Well I quickly came to figure out that 1st, in order to do that, I would need a much better machine, I would need to quit my day job and detect full time, I would also need the knowledge, and properties to hunt on that I could have exclusive rights to and that have never been touched by another hunter. Lol ok so there went that goal, straight out the window.

So then I made a couple of more realistic goals for myself.

1st – I wanted to find a ring. 2nd a silver ring, 3rd a gold ring, 4th an old coin, 5th an antique item (over 100 years) 6th once I found an old coin To beat the age of it with another find. And continue that process. 7th to understand my machine and learn it thoroughly 8th to get equipment necessary for me to reach my goals. Ect… the list continues and grows every time I go out hunting. Oh, a necklace, and a pendant, those are on my list as well.

To date I have found a ring, well actually 2 rings but one was just lost on the beach and a woman asked me if I’d help locate it, which I did and gave back to her immediately. 2nd I found a second garbage ring which I kept

An antique item, an old railway nail. Which I wrote another blog about at this link https://swingingcoils.family.blog/2022/07/19/a-tiny-bit-of-canadian-history/ this is more interesting than I would have expected in my honest opinion.

An old coin (72 years old) 1950 Canadian penny

So now I’m looking for and older coin than 1950. And I am determined to find it this year which is now another goal of mine.

I was wondering what to do with all these coins and treasures I’m finding, they seem to just be getting collected and put on tables in my house which my partner is getting annoyed with ( I don’t blame her either) so after looking up what some other detectorists do I have decided to either buy or make a small treasure chest to put all these treasures in. And once I get more treasures, I’ll get a bigger chest. The valuable items will go into special relic collection books and these blogs are going to be a reminder of each special hunt. I figure this is a good way to display my treasures and keep an account of my hunting adventures.

I hope you enjoyed this blog on my own thoughts on metal detecting as a newbie. And please share any thought of your own with me in the comments below.

Cheers