The Ultimate Metal Detecting Glossary
Whether you’re new to the world of metal detecting or have been in the game for so long that the latest slang may as well be a foreign language – we’ve got you covered here.
Delving into the thoughts and shared perceptions of the metal detecting community, this is the ultimate metal detecting glossary to bury the jargon deep underground.
To get the most accurate and up to date use of metal detecting vocabulary (all PG, of course!) we asked detectorists on social media about the language they use when metal detecting. Read ahead for the final list…
| Title | Description |
| All Metal | a common detecting mode which represents the whole frequency spectrum. |
| Ants | A method of referring to seemingly endless sea of detectorists descending on the fields at rallies and events. |
| Archie | An Archaeologist |
| Beercanite | Aluminium blobs, often found on the beach. |
| Bluetooth | Why do we need to know about Bluetooth in metal detecting? Good question. You may have a detector with wireless audio, if so, this is likely to be the method in which the audio is sent to your headphones from the detector. |
| Bull's Head | A George III coin. Aptly named due to the size of his head resembling that of a bull. |
| Bucketlister | A find that you have been waiting for, for some time. Something from your detecting ‘bucket list’ |
| Canslaw | A shredded can, most likely destroyed from the farming plough. |
| Chatter | When a detector is giving lots of erratic signals, commonly from ground noise. This can be addressed by conducting a ground balance or by lowering the sensitivity of the machine. |
| Choppy | When the detector finds a signal, but discriminates it out. |
| Clipping or Clipped | This is the process used of trimming the outside edges of hammered coins so that the edges may be re-used to form new coins. It’s a cheeky idea which would yield more money if enough were clipped. |
| Coin Ball | When the mud around a coin has formed a sphere when you remove it from the ground |
| Coin Spill | Finding a large amount of coins in the same area. Very common in ancient burials, or beach locations where someone may have dropped a lot of change. |
| Clod / Plug | A large clump of earth which has been removed to help located the find. It’s desired that the piece can be replaced in as few pieces as possible. |
| CMD | Crawfords Metal Detectors ‘an excellent shop to buy products from with an excellent service’ – Thank you Lawrence M – He is a smart fellow. |
| Conductivity | The degree to which an object or material conducts electricity. |
| Dirt Fishing | A slang term for metal detecting – fishing through the dirt (sometimes used as a method of referring to mudlarking too). |
| Discrimination | The process of eliminating/omitting specific signals. This is important if you’re trying to find something specific. |
| Eddy Currents | Caused by the magnetic flux, induced within the targets. Producing and detecting eddy currents is the basis of detecting technology. |
| Eyes Only | A surface find spotted prior to the detector passing over it! |
| Ferrous | Containing or composed of Iron |
| Field of Dream | A site which provides phenomenal results, most likely an ancient settlement or place of significance. |
| Find | Any item which is found! |
| Fibula | A piece of a Roman styled brooch. These are beautiful to find. |
| Field Liaison Officer (FLO) | The person you report your significant finds to. There is a FLO for every county in the UK. You can find your nearest FLO on the PAS website - Finds Website |
| FeCo | A method of measuring a targets Iron composition (Fe) and it’s Conductivity (Co) simultaneously. This is seen on machines such as the CTX3030 and the Manticore. |
| Ground Balance | the process of adapting or calibrating a metal detector to the conditions of a particular environment. It ‘balances’ the machine to the ground, think of this as to tare a set of kitchen scales. |
| Grotts / Grottys | Old coins which are in poor or, ‘grotty’ condition. |
| Halo Effect | The leeching affect of a target to it’s surrounding area with creates adjustments to the environment. |
| Hammered | A coin which has been fashion by the process of hammering metal within a die to create the desired indentations/design. These are great to find. |
| Hawker or Night Hawking | Night hawking’, is the process of detecting in fields at night, most likely without permission. This is illegal and does not benefit the reputation of our hobby. 8-( |
| History Wand | An affectionate name for a metal detector. |
| Hoard | A hoard is a large amount of treasure found in the same location. A group of coins is classed as a hoard when there are; two or more precious metal (more than 10% content of gold or silver for example) coins, or three base metal (bronze, copper) coins found in the same location. |
| Honey Hole | A single spot/hole that produces great finds |
| Hot Rocks | Pieces of rock or earth which provide highly mineralised or conductive signals. |
| Iron Bias | This is a process employed by a detector to try and reduce the effect of signals received from iron when detecting. Setting the iron bias higher reduces the iron signals displayed by the detector, but can result in more inaccurate detecting. |
| Latency | The speed at which data transfers – relevant to audio signals in metal detectors – the quicker, the better! Try to aim for Bluetooth 5.0 if possible as this would meet ‘low latency’ standards. |
| Low and Slow | Practical advice on how to swing your coil for best results. Swing it close to the ground in a slow motion. |
| Masking | When the detector is picking up Iron and not the target it is masking. The new Minelab Manticore is brilliant at avoiding masking and can signify this well with its 2D display. |
| Moo Tube | A small tube, which would have contained ointment used on Cows, which is commonly found in pasture fields. |
| Multi-Frequency | A metal detector which utilises multiple frequencies to provide information to its user. |
| Multi-IQ | Multi-IQ is the world famous Minelab, multi-frequency method of producing and processing detecting information. It’s highly intelligent, and performs particularly well in difficult conditions, such as the beach. |
| MultiIQ+ | As above, but with even more processing power. Currently only available on the Minelab Manticore. |
| Nicked | When someone has slightly damaged a find when digging or removing the target from the ground. |
| Non-Ferrous | A metal containing no traces of Iron or steel. |
| Overspill | When returning the removed soil from a target dig, you leave excess soil surrounding the hole. |
| Partifact | a metal object that has no known identity – a part of an artefact. |
| PAS - Portable Antiquities Scheme | PAS is a scheme managed by the British Museum which is responsible for compiling and maintaining a database for all significant finds and treasures discovered throughout the UK. More information on PAS |
| Permission | This is the verbal or written permission which is provided by a landowner or responsible party which allows metal detecting to occur. ALWAYS ensure you have permission to detect in the location you are in, or you risk breaking the law and also putting the hobby and other detectorists into disrepute. |
| Purse Bar | A metal bar, commonly worn on the waist which supported a purse. |
| Pin Pointer | A hand-held detector which is designed for precise target identification and therefore perfect for the final moments of locating a signal. |
| Pontiac Firebird | A little joke here from BBC series, The Detectorists. It’s a small toy car the main characters find and which can be common, fun little finds! |
| Probe | Another name for a pin pointer. |
| Recovery Speed | The speed at which a detector can detect. If multiple targets lie in close proximity, a slow recovery speed may miss them, or read them as one long target, whereas a fast recovery speed will illustrate the definition or, space between the targets. |
| A Roman | An artefact from the Roman civilisation commonly used to refer to coins. |
| Sensitivity | Describes how sensitive the metal detector is to its environment. You can think about this as how much of the environment the detector is reporting. |
| Scooping | A warm nick name for beach detecting. |
| A Sunbather | Another name for a ‘Surface Find’. |
| A 'Shiny' | commonly gold as it doesn’t tarnish, but a coin or object that comes out of the ground in a shiny condition. |
| A 'Shotty' | A Shot Gun cap - very common on farmland! |
| Surface Find | an item which lays upon the surface and requires no digging to acquire. |
| Target | Refers to the item which has been located by the detector, but not yet unearthed/discovered. |
| Target ID | The numbers received by a detector which give indication as to the identity of the target. |
| Target Tone | The sound/tone produced when a signal is encountered. On more sophisticated machines the tones can be altered to the user’s taste. |
| Toasted | A coin with no indentations/embossing remaining. |
| Viccy | an abbreviated term for, ‘Victorian’, related to any artefact from this time period – ‘a viccy penny’ = a Victorian penny. |
| Waterproof | It’s an obvious one, but ensure you are aware of how waterproof your equipment is. Some detectors have a waterproof search head and some, such as the Equinox 800 and Manticore can be fully submerged, for river, beach and sea detecting. |
Wow, wow, wow!
Thank you so much to everyone who helped compile this lovely technical and slang metal detecting glossary. Here is a list of some of the people who have helped create this extensive list!
Stuart Woolger, Craig Allison (CMD) Luke Nicholson (Anglo Detecting), Kev Mar, George Macdonald, Steve Smith, Makie Nigel Mcniece, Scott Ballard (CMD), Kyra Scott Nixon, Malcom Fullbrook, Darren Tatam, Claire Kay, Nikki Foster (Soil Sisters), Karl Draper-Firth (Mental Detecting), Ken Jordan, Bodhisatta Vow-Magoo, Ciaran Duffy (Minelab), Frances Hallam, Gary Stonehouse, Laurance Motley, Michelle Vall, Paul Keys, Derek Gibbin, Mark Lawson (Marky Mark Gone Digging), Joe R Allen, Tony Worrall, Sam A Moss (Soil Sisters), Nicholas Hibbard, Steve Jennings, Paul Cee, Julian Sammon (Minelab).
If you have any suggestions that we didn’t add please feel free to add them in the comments below!
Thank you all!