Need plan for a test garden - What's the best way to make one?

[Idaho-Marke]

I have coins and space to build a coin test garden, but I don't know the best way to go about it. How far apart should I space them, this that and the other thing.

Any suggestions?

Thx.

Marke

 

[tabdog]

n/t

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Tabdog good advice.Like you I have a map of the coins buried.I did have golf tees to mark the coins but they usually disappear after I cut my lawn.I buy and sell different metal detectors to support the hobby.My opinion of a metal detector usually changes once taken through the coin garden.The coin garden will cut through the rhetoric and hype,just performance no longer a beauty contest.

 

[tabdog]

n/t

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Tabdog,coins I would like to add a couple of Indian Head pennies which can read from screw tabs to zinc.But again the next best thing to actual field use a test run through the coin garden where some metal detectors fail to make the cut on this obstacle course.

 

[John-Edmonton]

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[Sekiar]

Been thinking of making a coin lot, however what do you think of taking a number of different height plastic buckets and fill with soil....I know it would not be the same as in the ground. But just think how many different objects you could place under the buckets and test with any number of detectors.....this could be done outside on a metal clean spot on the ground. This would give you an unlimited of combinations of targets. Charles

 

[tabdog]

n/t

 

[UK Brian]

Mines the best part of an acre with the oldest part 15 years plus old.
I would go with the suggestion of having at least some targets with rubbish items near. Some of the deeper detectors are those that mask out most from rubbish.
Also having suffered really heavy rain that led to moles moving up onto my ground I would think about sticking the coins on a thin plastic strip that would stop any movement up, down or sideways. Even pre mole I had test items move several inches over a few years.

 

[John-Edmonton]

It would probably work too. I would add a little saline (salt) solution to the buckets to help compensate for the loss of rain which does contains acids that promote some oxidation on the coins creating the "halo effect".