Good commentary, Aureus! My point is there really aren't that many productive spots that are full of nails or other iron, so there's no advantage spending an extra grand or more for a "better" detector. Also, some home sites may have a lot of nails, while others, not so much. Maybe the myth that colonists burned down homes they were abandoning for the nails isn't just a myth? I know that I've never run into a cellar hole that was so full of nails that I gave up on it. A little trashy, maybe, but still detectable.
I do know that I've done many cellar holes that just don't have anything good in or around them. I even got down on my knees at one particular cellar hole and rooted around the ground with my pinpointer! I figured that I might be missing something good that was masked from all the nails. I must have dug 50 nails that day, but no coins, buttons or non-ferrous items. You have to realize that most farmers were dirt poor, so the fantasy that all cellar holes are full of coins is just that, pure fantasy,
I've detected dozens of cellar holes and many cabin sites (those didn't have a foundation). Never found anything really significant in any of them. In the area, yes, but nothing within 15 feet of a cellar hole. Maybe some flat buttons and a shoe buckle or two, but I've never found a silver coin or large cent really close to a cellar hole. My best finds have always been 15 feet or more away from the homesite. Why? Because they lost coins while doing some activity, not by walking around. They fell out of their pockets while they were hanging wash, chopping firewood or pulling up a bucket of water from their well.
Bottom line, don't think buying a 1.5k detector will be your key to finding tons of valuable coins just waiting to be found at trashy cellar hole sites. You will be sorely disappointed. Use the cellar hole as a starting point and work out from there. Detect any stone walls nearby and try to find the well, privy and where they had a barn or root cellar. Those are the spots that will get you the good stuff.
In response to the LCs out of 600+ there's a lot of pre 1900. I dig a lot of pre 1858 coinage up here 1815-1840 and it will be half and full penny Tokens.
Site dependent always.
You really truly believe that the 1.5K detector isn't going to gain any more than a mid-range detector.
How do you base this conclusion on really?
Have you ever done a coil to coil test?
Could it be more the fact of the $$$ vs results conclusion?
You have also stated at various times that a high end machine isn't pulling banner finds up regularly over a lower cost machine would.
Like I stated in the open areas head to head the mid range will keep pace with the high end.(Assuming that the mid range has depth capabilities)
I have one site that is a hay field-cut once a year-the site is partly groomed by the gulf course crew. Just a strip of manicured field so the owner can take his buggy home each night through their property.
All the coinage is pre 1855, all of it is 6-12" deep 80% in the 10"+ range.
This is for all the military items, and a couple of early silvers.
I have pounded this site with the ETrac, Deus l and the Dues ll.
Digging a bent sq. nail at 10" isn't a good dig in heavy clay.
But a LC on its side at 10" is a good.
Signal density is 10 targets per sweep.
Nails are from 4"-10"
Digging out a keeper I can dig a few half nails also in the same hole.
This site has produced 30+LCs, 2 silvers, 6 military buttons, other military items. Then there are patterned buttons and flat.
The last 2 trips, 5-6hrs of swinging produced zero nonferrous targets.
The perfect test site now for the new program.
Site size 1/2 acre at most.
Note the grass length, and the depth of targets that I have stated.
This is a slice of what I believe a high end machine can obtain out of a site.
I haven't gone coil to coil comparisons either.
This one is out of the heavy prickly ash that runs along the field. This site is 1/4 covered so it's difficult detecting.