First Post - First Silver - Semi Key Date!

[Highline]

Hopefully this won't be long winded..

I got my metal detector in middle school and used it extensively at my parents - in the country on the site of an old house. The ground held an unbelievable amount of scrap iron and ZERO coins.
After a hiatus of almost 15 years, I took it back out last week to a house in town and found my first wheat penny! Fast forward one week to last night..

I have been doing some research on my town and found a 1903 plat book with this excerpt (below) on a now-gone town one mile away. You can see on the far left two black boxes marked "P.O" and "Store".



What the map doesn't show are the locust trees, thorny vines and weeds above my head. I could barely swing my detector but found a single coin (and a marble) at the site. Very exciting to pull my first silver and lo and behold, it's an 1896-O. Tougher date and in this grade is worth ~ $120. Thanks for looking.




P.S. I need some guidance with upgrading my current White's to something a little more robust. I would say I'm a coin/relic hunter and I need something that is good at identifying (and ignoring) iron. Something under $750, preferably.

 

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[Carolina Tom]

Congrats sir. Very nice little shiny coin.

You will receive a lot of feedback on the new detector question. I use a Deus, but they are more than the budget allows.

GL to you!

 

[Scrappy]

Congrats sir. Very nice little shiny coin.

You will receive a lot of feedback on the new detector question. I use a Deus, but they are more than the budget allows.

GL to you!

I second the Deus.

Tom, you saw my Deus with the basic set-up. That was exactly $750. I'm sure the remote helps but I've had decent results without and think it's the best bang for the buck.

To the OP - nice Barber! Congrats

 

[against the wind]

Congrats on the silver.
An AT PRO will keep you within your budget.
Easy learning curve and with a 5 x 8 coil, you can pick the good targets out of the trash.

 

[plymouthian12]

Congrats. I love the barbers

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[park pirate]

Awesome...

 

[Highline]

Thanks. I'm biased towards White's, simply because I'm very familiar with mine and it was basically the only household name when I started. Now there is Garrett's, Tesoro, Teknetics... I've never heard of most of those.

I'll have to see who makes the Deus. The AT Pro and MXT All Pro look promising to me.

 

[trapperart]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the Barber.

 

[Diamondman307]

AT Pro

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on your first silver. A Barber dime is a good one.

 

[Garrett424]

That's one helluva nice first you got there...

 

[Kurios1]

Well, the old White's done good coming out off mothballs. Congrats on a sweet old valuable silver dime. As far as upgrading technology in metal detectors as you have already noticed many options are available within your price range. I started out White's and still own my first machine, DFX 300 & a White's Matrix M6. Both still very capable machines. Curiosity got me into the Minelab camp with their Explorer II. I swung that machine for several years and found some great stuff with it too. Then I got me a Makro Red Racer and absolutely fell in love with it. Mainly because it was a breeze to set up and go hunting right out of the box. Smaller learning curve than all my machines but, the White's M6 which is a great machine for those who just want to get after it and NOT mess with tweaking a whole bunch of settings. I upgraded to the Makro Racer 2 machine this spring and it is my favorite of all my machines today. A few more bells and whistles than it's predecessor the Red Racer 1 but, nearly as simple to set up and go. Also another consideration is weight of the machine and the Racers are maybe a pound or so lighter than my old Minelab Explorer II's and the White's machines. That makes a difference at my age. Also the Racers processors are much quicker at target identification than my multi frequency Explorer II's. I also have a Garrett AT Pro but, I find the Makro Racer more enjoyable to set up and hunt with so I only use that machine in the water as it's waterproof. I hope you don't end up with a headache trying to choose a new machine. I don't have any problems as I just go out and get what I want and see for myself. Fortunately blessed enough financially to do that. Welcome and good prospecting on a new machine and the finds it will bring you.

 

[dirtlooter]

congrats on the awesome find. as you can tell, there is a lot of very good advice on this net and reasons for usage. I love my AT Gold but at my age with the health issues I have, the Deus is a must for me. your old detector should make a fine back up detector to what ever you settle on

 

[tomhighland]

Congratulations on the silver. Take your time and research the detector to find what suits your needs. My choice was made based on the area I live. Lots of freshwater beaches and homes and farms going back about 150 years. I needed it to be waterproof for lakes and rain. Had about the same budget. Discovered I didn't need any coil other than the stock coil after buying and trying the optional one.

 

[btjbtj]

A gorgeous Barber! Congrats. AT Pro users here--great machine. -Lisa & John

 

[Truth]

Congrats on the silver.
An AT PRO will keep you within your budget.
Easy learning curve and with a 5 x 8 coil, you can pick the good targets out of the trash.

I agree no better way to really start and stay with the hobby till one day you add to it

 

[Truth]

it took me 2 years to find my one any only Barber. Congrats!!!!!! Where did you get your plat map from?

 

[Gridwalker306]

Nice job on the fine Barber!

 

[Gridwalker306]

I second the Deus.

Tom, you saw my Deus with the basic set-up. That was exactly $750. I'm sure the remote helps but I've had decent results without and think it's the best bang for the buck.

To the OP - nice Barber! Congrats

I agree. Get the Deus basic setup, then if you want to you can add a remote later.

 

[A2coins]

Welcome to tnet the AT PRO the New model that just came out!!!!!