Chasing the high tones paid off. As it was pulltab heaven the 10c and 20c count was well down. The hat pin was the most interesting of the junk. On a great streak but after 120km round trip the fuel bill wipes a few out. Slowly having to go further and further from home for hunts, and the ground is quickly drying up. Got a few spots local left, no easy school hunts though.
Anyone struggling for ideas on how to build the tally, especially if out of town then here's a couple of quick tips.
Primary schools and P-12 playground equipment in the chipbark can be a bonanza. My finds are usually triple in a small school as compared to a largish park playground. Also go really slow around the poles, dropping sensitivity if you need to, many of my gold coins come from near the edges of the steel. Listen for a cross repeatable signal with a very slow swing. On my Fisher the tone will "pop" through the low drone of the metal equipment detection. Same goes for pinpointing, just estimate the location, drop the sens on the PP a little and follow the strong signal for extra goldies. I'd estimate 10 - 15% extra finds come from this for me. Walking bridges (wood slatted type) suspended a couple feet in the air are my favorites, rarely do I miss getting at least one coin under here. Handy to know if your short on time.
Next is any grassed seated areas. This is doubled in the shade. Work through the junk and extra coins are found easily.
A few cheapies can be gotten from the bus stop grassed areas, or the pickup/dropoff points. If your lucky you can get the odd spill here.
Lastly don't even bother with sandpit. ...I've never found anything substantial even though I will always do them. Best you can hope for is finding the buried matchbox cars for the kids.
On the sports ovals (Victoria) I always start near the food Window or club rooms and start close by a few feet in from the boundary. Your looking for the kick to kick dropped change. Note where the coins come from in a cluster and work one average kick away parallel. Ive hit many goldies this way. Then head down to either side of the goal square and around the posts, usually I go the closest end to the club rooms again but let your eyes guide you. Maybe it's the non river end so the goal kickers don't lose the ball. Maybe it's the soft end of the ground in shade. Most grounds the favored end will be obvious under the coil. Everyone loves to try and kick the miracle goal. I'll work my way towards the 50m line where the adults and legends try to shoot the long goal usually just inside 50 on about a 15-30 degree angle.
In the parks I start with the tree lines. Imagine it's summer and your wanting shade. Great places to check a parks potential. Even small trees mid park seem to attract human traffic. Also check around the grassed edge of the play equipment (any play equipment) just off the chip bark about 1.5 m wide. Again I would say an extra 5 -10% of my finds come from this strip around equipment.
You can all but forget areas around bins. I have never picked up a stray gold coin in this area ever.
Bus stops and phone boxes are mixed bags but if your lucky you will get a coin spill, I've had a few easy wins here.
Any water bodies are a natural attraction. There's something inside of us that pulls us to the edge. If your park has water start there. The best park days I've had are near the edges of water by far.
Before turning my detector coil to the ground I'm going to cover I'm always looking for signs of activity. If you do this the best spot to start will come naturally. Humans are very predictable, you need only take a minute or 2 tops and the starting place should be obvious.
Also we are creatures of habit, even in different places we still use a reliable decision making process. I think that's why I love coins more than gold. Reading the terrain is much easier because we are only analyzing human interaction with a space, and that's a reliability that will put coins in your pocket on a consistant basis.
Cheers.
