No one seems to have anything to say on this (fascinating) topic so let me try and get the ball rolling.Ã, What is your favourite detector for use on the Thames - or similar rivers?Ã, I'm currently using a Fisher 1236 x2 with the 5 inch head but though I'm doing well with it on copper and bronze I'm not doing as well as I'd expect for silver.Ã, Has anyone else tried a 1236 on the foreshore and if so, how did you get on?
I'd love to hear more about you experiences of detecting on the foreshores. What kinds of things are you finding?
I've been meaning to get myself a surface license for the Thames so I can try my luck, I've got an ancient C-Scope 1220B with the tiny search coil that I thought might get through some of the junk.
Hi Tascio,
My finds from the Thames between Nov 05 and Oct 06 included the following:
3 gold rings, 1 gold pendant and two gold earings, all of them relatively modern.Ã, 528 coins, including Ã,£35.03 in "spendable" cash, Ã,£2/15/6 in pre-decimal silver (of which 13/- was Victorian), 27 Georgian coppers and lots of Victorian and later pre-decimal copper coins.Ã, I found no hammered coins or medieval stuff at all but I did locate two quite nice late Roman coins and a fragment of a bronze age spear and/or sword.Ã, There was also plenty of buttons, keys, buckles, cheap jewellery and toys, what seemed like 8 million lead weights and a huge amount of general junk and rubbish!
The point is that there's still a lot of interesting stuff on the foreshore but it's very hard to winkle out and most people I meet there never seem to find anything at all.Ã, Some detectors are definitely better than others in heavy iron junk but not having used a 1220 I suggest you just give it a go and see how you get on.Ã, The main things are to have a small head on your machine, be as familiar as you can be with the way it responds to heavy iron contamination, go slow and have a lot of patience!Ã, Make sure you get the licence though as I was actually asked to produce mine a few weeks ago!
Good luck.....
Sounds like you are doing very well!!! Yep, I'll definately have to get my license sorted and give it a go! If the 1220B doesn't work out maybe i'll give the fisher 1236 a try. What settings do you use on the fisher for the Thames foreshore?
Quote from: Tascio on December 31, 2006, 22:27:37 PM
Sounds like you are doing very well!!! Yep, I'll definately have to get my license sorted and give it a go! If the 1220B doesn't work out maybe i'll give the fisher 1236 a try. What settings do you use on the fisher for the Thames foreshore?
HI I NOTICED YOUR DETECTING ON THE THAMES,IVE BEEN DOING THE THAMES FOR AROUND 20 YRS AND AM A MEMBER OF THE MUDLARKS,IF YOU WANT TO CHAT BOUT DETECTORS FINDS ETC EMAIL ANY TIME
i dug the thames foreshore right through the 80,s and all the big thames side building sites, and would still swear by a compass 77b, i do a lot of other rivers around the uk, but none have the same levels of iron contamination as the thames, the late vic fiveash also made a couple of machines that worked well on the thames. at a push i would use a tesoro with a small coil, but never a fisher! they love iron to much 8)
Anybody finding much on the Thames at the moment? Anybody know what the situation with licenses is right now?
Would love to hear from some of you guys with the years of experience on the Thames.
If not, maybe us Thames newbies will have to get ourselves licenses and go down there as a kind of forum outing to see if we can find anything!