T2 or G2?

[JSC]

Which would be better for coin shooting and occasional beach (wet & dry sand)?

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

If you want depth and can stand a hot machine go T2. If you want simplicity and a quiet machine even in trash go G2. Feel
Free to contact me with any questions or for better pricing options. Thanks, Bart

 

[jmaryt]

what about the omega!..bart? it's NOT quiet in trash?
just curious!..thanks!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

 

[Monte]

Often a reader might know a bit about the type of experience a poster has, or the typical sites they intend to hunt. Having knowledge about metal detectors and how they work, in general, can help you when selecting a detector. If you have more than 'average' experience, then a question might be more specific rather then very generalized.

The term "Coin Shooting" is also a very general reference to the type of activity that you plan to do and is separated from other applications more by the type of site(s) you hunt and the recovery methods allowed or that are doable, rather then just the types of targets you are after. For example I'll give you the following suggestions of a "Coin Hunter.":

A.. Many people live near or enjoy venturing to a coastal beach or a popular lake and they hunt for coins (and jewelry, and other smaller-sized targets) in loose sand. In general we refer to this as "Beach Hunting" which is really only describing the TYPE of site condition where many people are primarily Coin Hunting. Target recovery is very simple and you can scuff the sand with a shoe, dig it with a trowel or hand-scoop, or use a sifting basket. Then, you can very easily cover up the recovery effort and it looks great as you go your merry way.

B.. One great source for "flash money" is working Developed Playgrounds. Coin Hunting, and jewelry hunting, is often accomplished in a loose medium such as wood-chips, bark-chips, sand, pea gravel, shredded tires (hopefully w/o metal material), and I even work some playgrounds that have cherry pits filling the void around the swings and slides and merry-go-round and bars. Once again, these are the types of mediums that provide for easier target recovery and a quick cover-up of those recovery efforts.

C.. Most commonly a Coin Hunter is working grassy places such as Parks, Schools, Soccer and Football Fields, and Private Yards. My definition for this is type of coin and jewelry search is "Traditional Coin Hunting." More often, when hunting a nicely manicured lawn, I consider the Traditional Coin Hunter to be using, and relying on, visual Target ID or a visual numeric VDI read-out (Visual Discrimination Indicator), and with some makes and models they might also rely on the Audio Tone ID.

The main differences between this style (C) and those listed for 'A' and 'B', is that the searcher tends to use the visual and audio information more to determine a Dig/No-Dig condition, and also a very marked difference between the time and effort needed for some target recovery, and the important need to make a very clean target removal and then ensure the site is very cleaned up and left to appear undisturbed.

D.. My favorite locations for "Coin Hunting" are generally placed where I am searching for OLDER coins and trade tokens includes less used (today) are Old Sites and Renovation Sites. Places such as ghost towns, stage stops, homesteads, pioneer and military encampments, old picnic and resort sites, old railroad depots, lumber and mining camps, urban renovation sites, etc., etc.

As you can imagine, these types of "Coin Hunting" sites tend to be brushier, might have building rubble, and very likely have a lot more old iron trash associated with them. I might refer to the visual TID information, but it is not a critical need to make a recovery decision. Those of us who most often seek older coins at these sites rely on using a very low Discrimination setting. Sometimes to just reject an Iron nail and sometimes even a little less, if the iron isn't too frequent. If we hear a beep we can audibly try to classify its potential as possible rusty junk, but we'll generally recover ALL one-way or two-way hits.

So, for me, most of my coin hunting is from 'B' type playgrounds where recovery is quick and clean-up is equally fast, or from 'D' type hunting where many targets are recovered, and usually recovery doesn't require careful urban lawn care.

Which would be better for coin shooting and occasional beach (wet & dry sand)?

So, not knowing what experience you have had with metal detectors, and also not understanding the types of sites you plan to search (of the four above types I listed), let me suggest the following:

You asked about the Teknetics T2 and G2 specifically. Personally, I don't consider either of them to 'fit' the category of a Traditional Coin Hunter even though they can and do both find coins. Instead, I liken the T2 as a versatile or all-purpose metal detector than con do well at Relic Hunting and even Gold Nugget Hunting, but can also serve the Traditional Coin Hunter okay because it does have ample adjustments and selection for Tone ID choice.

The downfall for most is that they are limited to two search coils, the 11" elliptical DD and the smaller round sub-5" DD. There are no in-between size coils. Also, while it does have viewable target ID and a VDI number, the target 'lock-on' isn't as consistent and doesn't hold as well on the mid-depth or deeper targets as do the Teknetics Omega, Gamma or even delta.

The G2 is is an excellent Gold Nugget Hunting detector, but it can serve some Coin Hunters okay, but it, too, has some limitations. The G2 does well on the older-conductive targets, such as the US 5

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

I agree with him. A Gamma or Omega are great coin hunters. Might be a better fit for you. T2 SE is more for relics and AWESOME raw depth.

 

[JSC]

Hi Bart -

Thanks for your reply and advice. I have thought about the Omega, but, since I have the BH Platinum (almost a Gamma) I was thinking about how big a step up I would need to see a big improvement.

 

[JSC]

Monte -

Thanks for the advice and all the thought that went into the reply, much appreciated. I am relatively new to the hobby and purchased a BH Platinum a few months ago. So far it has been mostly parks, sports fields and a couple of cellar holes for me. I still have a lot to learn about the hobby and the Platinum.

I was just doing a little due diligence in planning for a future upgrade in equipment. I travel quite a bit throughout New England in my work and am interested in a versatile machine. I like the Platinum in most respects, it is more of a Teknetics than a Bounty Hunter, that's why the question about T2 v G2. The Platinum seems to have trouble identifying targets accurately if more than 2-3 inches deep; a nail can bounce from iron through pull tab and all the way into the coins region on each swing. It also has trouble seeing a coin smaller than a half dollar at 5- 6 inches. Like all hobbies, always look for the next best thing!

Thanks again for all the info.