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Types of metal detecting: descriptions and tips
L "Coinshooting"
"Coinshooting" is searching for coins, usually in places like parks,
schoolyards, church lawns, and people's residental yards. In most
places where coins are likely to be found, there's a lot of aluminum
trash like pulltabs and bottle caps, as well as steel bottle caps and
often nails. Sometimes there's jewelry.
You'll usually search using
discrimination to get rid of the iron and the aluminum trash, even
though that'll cause you to miss some jewelry.
Much coinshooting is done in lawn areas, where digging holes would
cause damage to the grass. Recovering targets is usually done by
carefully cutting a slit in the turf with a knife, and tamping it firmly
when you're finished. In these situations you can't recover deep
targets, so you can cut down on nuisance signals by reducing the
sensitivity.
When searching on private property, first get the permission of the
property owner. Most of the public places where one would be likely
to do coinshooting are city, county, or school district property.
Usually there's no ordinance prohibiting use of a metal detector as
long as you're not causing damage. However, sometimes such
ordinances do exist, and administrators and security personnel
often have the legal authority to prohibit any activity they don't like
even if there's no ordinance against it. If there is a metal detecting
club in your area, someone will usually know what areas can and
can't be "beeped".
It's always a good idea to be ready to put your best foot forward
when using a metal detector in a public place. Any trash you see or
inadvertently recover, pick it up and put it in a pouch or pocketed
apron. This way you can explain that you are performing a public
service by helping keep the place free of trash, especially pieces of
metal or glass that could endanger a child at play.
Be proficient at
recovering targets without causing damage to the lawn. Explain
that whenever you find jewelry which has personal identifying marks
such as a class ring, you make an attempt to determine the owner
and to return it.
When someone who questions what you're doing
finds out that you are causing no damage and are actually
performing a public service, usually from then on out you'll be
welcome.
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