My Search Programs for Minelab E-Trac and CTX 3030 Metal Detectors

4-LEVEL SEARCH PROGRAM #4 for Detecting Tiny Thin-Sectioned Hammered Coins, p. 1

Detecting Smallest Silver Hammered Coins

This 4-Level metal detecting search program enables Minelab E-Trac and Minelab CTX-3030, operated with a stock 11" DD search coil or smaller coils, to "pick up" most of silver hammered coins of the "Wire Money" type described in Detect Hammered Coins section, at the sites with high, moderate and low levels of trash. Each level search program can be effectively used for finding a wide variety of small/thin-sectioned silver/copper-alloyed coins and non-ferrous artifacts including thin gold chains.

However, the Minelab FBS metal detectors have their limitations in performance, and would not respond to the partially masked hammereds as well as the tiny coins in vertical or angled position.

Program settings of each level differ a little - just by a couple of values, from settings of other levels. What distinguishes each program from programs of other levels is its Discrimination pattern used in conjunction with a certain Tone ID Profile assigned to it. And, of course, the overall success depends on the skill, level of practical experience, and expertise of a detectorist.

TABLE of Contents:

1. Introduction - page 1

2. Detecting Early Russian Hammered Coins - "Wire Money" - this section covers the search and recovery methods for the tinniest hammered coins and includes numismatic information on this type of "hammies".

3. Search Program Level 1 (Beginner's Level) - for Detecting Tiny Coins at Sites with High Levels of Iron Junk - page 2

4. Other Coins and Non-Ferrous Artifacts Detected with Discrim Pattern of Level-1 Program - page 5

5. Search Program Level 2 - for Detecting Tiny Coins at Sites with Moderate Iron Junk - page 7

6. Search Program Level 3 - for Detecting Tiny Coins Among Nails at "Hunted Out" Sites - page 10

7. Search Program Level 4 - "Expert" FTF (Four Tone Ferrous) Program - page 13

1. Introduction

The following combination of settings, is a result of "trial and error" process that took place at various metal detecting sites of former medieval villages that disappeared from the Earth's face before the 18th century. For a long time period, all these sites have been ACTIVE farm fields; therefore, over many years they have accumulated a lot of modern junk - parts of farming machinery, various lengths of aluminum wire, bottle caps, wads of foil, as well as the military junk - brass casings, bullets, pieces of tank armor and shrapnel, with which these fields were littered when the battles swept over the area during the First and Second World Wars.

Because a detector does not respond to thin-sectioned and tiny silver hammered coins (info about them is here) with strong and "sizeable" signals as it usually responds to "normal" (round) coins, my goals in developing this combination of settings were the following: 1) to make the E-Trac (or CTX-3030) operation relatively quiet (though it is not always possible) so that the true "small" signals, including the questionable ones off the partially masked coins, would be heard, and 2) to preserve some detecting range by utilizing least filtering.

However, the main purpose of my search program and its variations is to enable an E-Trac or CTX-3030 operator to hear and discern the distinctive low-tone signals of wire coins from responses of other targets. Only the Level 4 search program is an exception as it incorporates the 4-Tone Target ID Profile to take advantage of the E-Trac's built-in abilities. Though with the CTX-3030's advanced features such as "Resize the Tone ID Profile" and "Combined", it is much easier to meet the objectives.

Each of my search programs is just a starting point for developing your own effective combination of settings according to your preferences and metal detecting conditions. My 4-Level search program is only to help you in doing your home work. Use programs of all levels for experimenting with various targets in field conditions, and see what settings work the best for you.

Please let me know your opinion on my program after you use it. You are welcome to submit some pictures of your finds recovered with any of my search programs. I would appreciate any suggestions, tips, and constructive criticism. If you have an effective combination of settings for wire-coin shooting at the iron-infested site, and you would like to share it with the community, please e-mail me your program! I would be happy to post it here. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

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