Alright, now we can get to the meat of investigating deep targets like this to bring out the best ID, and how they more often than not will react and sound. As I said, coil placement is critical. There will be one exact spot usually where the target is going to give it's best ID and audio to you. Move off that spot by even a quarter to a half an inch and it destroys the quality of it. Whether that's due to nearby trash, mineral content, iron, or even just that you are hitting the target with the strongest part of the detection field, where as moving off a hair is hitting it with weaker eddy currents, is any body's guess. I just know that if you move off by even a little bit the target's quality can go way down. You need to pay close attention to where you are wiggling or short sweeping, and if you are aimed right at that "best spot" or if you are perhaps off to the left or write a bit, which will also degrade target quality. Even slight error in "aim" can mean the difference between a great sounding and IDing deep silver signal and something that sounds and ID's like a crunched up old pull tab or worse.
Now, let's get to the real point of today's tip. All the above stuff is very important and is the foundation for this next thing, concerning the type of audio one might expect from that deep potential coin. This is what really hit me today. I knew it before but never really soaked in just how it sounds. I had located a rather deep sounding coin signal and using all the above technique I was getting a a decent signal from it from two different directions. Approach it from any other variation there of and it didn't sound nearly as good. You've got to circle that target and do all the above, looking to find at least two ways it will sound good or more. When that happens the odds of it being iron goes way down, as iron often will only sound off from one way. Still, some very deep coins will null or sound bad from all directions but one too, but when you've got several directions working for you in the way of a good signal then you can start dreaming about what kind of coin it might be.
Sorry, I keep building up to the entire point and then wandering off into more tips related to it. The thing I really wanted to convey is the sound of that deep coin. As you do the wiggle or short sweep (again, either as fast and tight as you can manage on some days, but wider and slower on others), pay close attention to the audio. Most deep fringe coins will make a rather unique sound as you do all the above over them. In Explorer circles they call it a "flutey" type tone. I don't know if I would call this response on the Sovereign flutey. Well, I guess some might, but I think a more descriptive word would be "fluttery". On the Sovereign if it is indeed a deep coin as you wiggle/short sweep over it you'll hear what I would even call a "Ding, Ding, Ding" type of sound that kind of "flutters" SLIGHTLY up and down in this highest of highest tones the Sovereign makes. It almost sounds like some pinball machines when you are really racking up a lot of constant fast points. A constant "Ding, Ding, Ding" it a fluttery and perhaps you might call it "flutey" type of audio. It's unique, and I have yet to see deep iron or other trash give exactly this type of response.
It's very hard to manage on deep coins because you are already having a hard time getting them to give up the proper ID and audio for you. That's why correct coil placement and constant wiggle or short sweeping AT THE RIGHT SPEED is critical. Play with that speed and just how tight or wide the wiggle or short sweep needs to be as you creep the coil along. When you get in that "zone" where you hear the above response hold it there. Now do your 90 degree move, noting where that spot was, and see if it gives you it the other way too. If it does then you can start getting excited about what it might be. Again, I prefer using the tip of the SEF for this, noting best response as I just start to approach the target will then mean the spot to dig is right at the tip of the "V" at it's base. Like I said, I'll then move 90 degrees and look to get the same type of unique response in about the same spot, but even if the target will only do this very unique audio response from one direction I'm digging it. You'll see it's different than the "ghostly" response that iron gives, and has various other traits in both ID and audio that the two don't exactly match in respect to each other.
So how do you learn and practice this deep coin response? Well, the obvious and probably best way would be to head out to a spot where you know deeper wheats still roam a certain field in good numbers. Lacking that, you can just place a coin on the ground and then do the wiggle deal from way up in the air, slowly bring the coil closer (down) to the coin until you just start getting a response from it. Don't come closer to try to clean the signal up. You can't do that in real life. Instead, try to maneuver the coil slightly forward or back until you start to get a coin response with a high tone to break through. Position the coil precisely until it cleans up the audio and you start getting a 180 (or at least mid to high 170's) type of VDI #. Pay attention to this unique sound and it's constant "racking up" of "points" type deal almost like you are playing a pinball machine, or at least I would say. Once you hear this "fluttery" type of "Ding Ding Ding" back and fourth or "up and down" type of tone you'll know exactly how distinct it is. Even if you can only muster this response from one way on a deep target it is different from iron in several ways, both ID and audio, and so when you master what to look for you'll be digging it even if it only makes the sound in one certain spot from one certain direction.
Now, to finish up, let me just say that not all deep coins are going to do this. When they get ultra fringe, a bit beyond the edge of what the Sovereign can detect, you may only get an ID in the 140's or 150's or so, or it will make it up to 180 (or at least near that), but it will take it's good old time doing that. Not always, though. Some of the really fringe ones can't even climb. They'll linger in the 130s, 140s, or maybe the 150s or 160s, but you'll note how they constantly try to climb like real deep ones do when they can get to 180. Sure, the progression of numbers can be somewhat random, but it's far less random than say iron or other junk that is giving you a false coin hit. Also, a deep coin that keeps trying to climb in audio may in fact fall through the basement into negative numbers. They often will do this as a pattern. Climbing, perhaps getting to 180, and then suddenly it's basement city with a negative number, but the distinct climbing pattern then repeats it's self. False coin spikes from iron will visit that "basement" of negative numbers far more often than a real coin will, and as said will not progress in it's climb in as uniform of a pattern as a coin. The iron won't have as much rhyme or reason to it's "pattern" as it climbs, but you can see the more uniform progress of a coin's climb. It's not quite as random. One final note on all this. Not all deep coins will have to climb. The deep wheat I hit today would instantly ring in at like 178 to 180, and bounce back and fourth for the most part between those two numbers. Sure, it would occasional give me a lower number, but often this was accompanied by bad audio due to me drifting off the target as I did the wiggle, or short sweep in today's case that this site wanted. You MUST keep this motion going constantly to draw the best response out of it.
So I'm getting that fluttery type "ding ding ding", racking up points, or whatever you want to call this sound from two directions. If I approach this target from any other way it would not produce a coin signal, but it was good (but hard to draw out with the constant motion and work) from two other ways. I dig down and at 7.5" I pop a wheat. Now, you might be saying no big deal for the Sovereign to get that deep, but I'm talking bone dry black powdery type dirt (the kind that looks to contain tiny hot rocks) where you are lucky to get that kind of depth on any machine when it's this dry. Yet, it was easy enough to draw the signal out of this wheat. Had it been another inch or so deeper I probably would have got it. For sure if the ground had any kind of moisture content to it I bet another 2 or 3" wouldn't have been a problem. Keep in mind that this was with a rather low sensitivity level, and also keep in mind that any other machine I've used at this location would be lucky to get a wheat that deep under the best of conditions, meaning wet soil. So I'm quite happy with the Sovereign's effort on this coin, as well as the 12x10 coil thus far.
