The Detector Glossary

[Steve in PR]

Here's some help for people who want to know what the heck some of the terms and abbreviations are in some of the forum postings. Some of them may actually help!

Glossary of Detecting Terms

Refined From Western & Eastern Buyers Guide, Ron’s Detectors Website and the crack TQ Research Team

Air Test: A test performed by moving various sized metal samples beneath the metal detector searchcoil to check the detector's features and target response. This test is not an accurate indicator of ground depth penetration capability.

Alkaline: A type of battery able to sustain longer periods of current drain with greater storage life when compared to the standard carbon-zinc type.

All Metal: Any operating mode or control setting which allows total acceptance of any type of metal targets. Usually associated with the
Ground Balance mode.

Audio ID: See Tone ID

Audio Response: See Target Response

Auto Tune: Circuitry which continuously retunes the detector's threshold to the initial manually tuned audio level. The retuning rate following target rejection or drift can be preset or variable.

Back Reading: A false signal, when operating in the discriminate mode, caused by a rejected target coming within one inch of or contacting the searchcoil bottom.

Beavertail: The despair of the Detectorist. The torment of the treasure hunter. The scourge of the seeker. The curse of the coil. Shall I go on? The lowly pulltab.

Bench Test: An air test to determine at what approximate discriminate settings various metal samples are rejected or accepted. The test is conducted in a non-metallic area.

Black Sand: One of the most extreme components of nonconductive, negative ground minerals. Also called magnetite (Fe3O4) or magnetic iron oxide.

Body Mount: A configuration whereby the control housing is separated from the control shaft and fastened to the operator's body lessening arm fatigue and expanding usability for shallow water hunting. Also known as hip mount.

Cache: Any intentionally buried or secret hoard of valuables.

Can Slaw: Rusted pieces of tin cans in the ground.

Carbon-Zinc: The most common standard dry cell battery type.

Clad: The current currency of the realm. A thin piece of silver colored, nickel-copper alloy stamped onto a core of copper. Since 1982 the core is a zinc alloy. Subject to massive corrosion and a poor imitation of its older cousins. Clad can be used to pay for a parking meter at a search site or a cool drink.

Coil: See Searchcoil

Coin Depth Indicator: A visual indicator used in conjunction with calibrated circuitry to indicate depth of buried coins in inches or millimeters.

Coin Shooting: Looking specifically for coins. May also be what cowboys did when they were bored.


Concentric: A searchcoil configuration using one or more transmit and one receive windings having unequal diameters aligned on a common center; most recently arranged on the same plane and called coplanar concentric.

Conductive Salts: One of the major mineral types that make up the positive ground matrix. Wet, ocean-salt sand produces a positive rise or metallic type response on an air tuned threshold.

Conductivity: The measure of a metal target's ability to allow eddy current generation on its surface.

Control Housing: A metal or plastic box which holds circuit boards, indicators, meter, controls and power supply.

Convertible/Combination: A metal detector configuration allowing versatility in operator handling i.e. hand held to body mount.

Coplanar: Any searchcoil configuration in which transmit and receive windings occupy the same level or plane.

Crotal Bell: Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells. Jingle all the way! Actually are a very nice find, coming from the practice of attaching bells to their horse’s straps. They put bells every where on them! On their chests, on their necks, on their saddles, on their collars, on their hooves, even their rumps! No wonder they are still being found!

Crystal Controlled Oscillator: A transmit oscillator employing a crystal to maintain stable output frequency.

CW: Civil War

CZ: Cubic Zirconium. An artificial diamond.

Depth Penetration: The greatest measure of metal detector's ability to transmit an electromagnetic field into the soil matrix and produce a target signal.

Detection Pattern: The densest or strongest region of the searchcoil's electromagnetic field where detection occurs. Its shape is balloon and changes in size directly proportional to target surface area.

Detuning: Adjusting the audio threshold into the null or less sensitivity tuning zone. Also a method of narrowing a target signal width manually for precise pinpointing. This is accomplished by retuning to audio threshold over the target response area.

Digger: Something used to extract a target from the earth. Can be a trowel or a shovel or a spouse.

DISC: See Discrimination

Dighole (aka Dughole): Someone has left a clue that they were there before you….

Discrimination (or disc.): Adjustable circuitry which ignores or nulls audio responses from a specific conductivity range allowing positive responses to be heard from metals higher in conductivity above the discriminate control setting. Designed primarily to eliminate audio response from trash metals. See also Motion Discriminator.

Doo-dad, Whatjamacallit, Thingy, Thingamabob, Hoot-tis, etc.: Finds that defy an explanation using normal metal detecting terminology.

Double Blip: A signal characteristic common to elongated ferrous targets such as nails or coins lying close to the surface detected in the All Metal no-motion mode. Also, a 2-word curse.

Double D or 2 D: See Wide Scan. I won’t touch this one…..

Dowsing: searching for underground water or minerals by using a dowsing rod, pendant or pendulum. Subcategories would be Map Dowsing and Water Dowsing (aka Water Witching).

Drift: A loss of threshold tuning stability caused by temperature change, battery condition, ground mineral content or detector design.

Eddy Currents: Small circulating currents produced on the surface of metal by the transmitted electromagnetic field. These currents then produce a secondary electromagnetic field which is then detected by the searchcoil receiver windings resulting in inductive imbalance between the windings. Simple, right?

Electromagnetic Field: An invisible force extending from top and bottom of the searchcoil created by the flow of alternating oscillator frequency current around the transmit winding. See also Detection Pattern.

Electronic Pinpointing: An automated detuning feature which narrows signal response for the purpose of target pinpointing.

Elliptical Coil: A searchcoil with an ellipse shape. This coil can be either concentric or wide scan type.

Exonumia - A strange name for the fascinating and fun world of detected items that do not fall under an easy category. These would include "common" things like dog licenses, tokens, baggage tags, medals, political buttons, the list is almost endless. Something you think is junk could be very valuable. Maybe that's why it might be a good idea to check an item out before you toss it out.

Eye-balled: Found by sight, unless you have X-Ray vision....

Faint Signal: A sound characteristic of targets that are sometimes deeply buried or very small in size.

False Signal: An erroneous signal created by over shoot, ground voids or highly mineralized hot rocks. See also Back Reading. Also, when a ring tone turns out to be a pulltab. Grrrr.

Faraday-Shield: A metal foil wrapping of the searchcoil windings or metallically painted searchoil housing interior for the purpose of eliminating electrostatic interference caused by wet vegetation.

Ferrous: Descriptive of any iron or iron bearing material.

Ferrous Oxide: An oxidized particle of iron which generally becomes nonconductive and makes up the natural negative ground mineral matrix. Hematite, which is also and iron oxide (Fe2O3), will respond as positive or metallic. See also Black Sand.

Frequency: The number of complete alternating current cycles produced by the transmit oscillator per second. Measured in cycles per second.

VLF- Very Low Frequency = 3 to 30 kHz
LF- Low Frequency = 30 to 300 kHz
MF- Medium Frequency = 300 to 3000 kHz
HF- High Frequency = 3 to 30 MHz

Frequency Shift: A feature which suppresses the audio interference (cross-talk) between two detectors using identical transmit frequencies in close proximity. Also, a detector conflict?

Ground Balance: A state of operation using specialized circuitry to ignore the masking effect that iron ground minerals have over metal targets.

Ground Balance - Factory Preset: A feature which eliminates the manual ground balance control and its adjustment from the operator's setup procedure. This adjustment is performed internally by the factory to optimize operation over an average range on nonconductive soils.

Ground Balance - Manual Adjusted: A feature requiring a manual control adjustment procedure to neutralize the effects of negative minerals in the search matrix.

Ground Balance - Self Adjusting: A feature which senses change in ground mineral content and continuously readjusts the ground balance while in operation. Sometimes called Ground Tracking or Automatic Ground Balance.

Ground Filter: Complex circuitry found in motion-type detectors which separates mineral signal from the metal signal allowing it to be further processed by the discrimination circuitry.

Halo Effect: Certain metals, when buried for long periods, oxidize and leech into the surrounding soil. This results in a metallic halo around the buried object. Also, a residual glow that emits from a detectorist who finds a particularly good find.

Hand Held: A metal detector configuration whereby the operator holds a shaft or handle which supports the searchcoil and control housing. Also called pole mount.

Head: See Searchcoil

Hz or Hertz: Cycles per second. See also Frequency.

Hip Mount: See Body Mount.

Honey-hole (see also: Pocket Spills): A grouping of finds, usually coins, in one particular excavation. Also, what Winnie the Pooh was always looking for in a tree.

Hot Rock: A rock which contains a higher concentration of nonconductive ground minerals than the surrounding matrix to which the detector is balanced. A metallic (positive) response will be heard in the motion and non-motion modes and a null or negative drop in threshold is heard in the all-metal, ground balance mode over these rocks. Also, a newly landed meteorite. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

IH: Indian Head penny.

Insulator: A glass molding used to keep telegraph, telephone and power line apart on poles. Very collectable.

Isolator: A nonmetal stem which attaches the searchcoil to the control shaft eliminating metallic interference in the detection pattern. On some detectors, the entire lower shaft is made of a nonmetal substance.

Key Date - A key date is one that's harder to find in a particular series of coins, for example a 1909S VDB penny.

kHz or Kilohertz: 1000 cycles per second. See also Frequency.

LCD or Liquid Crystal Display: Used on a metal detector as a graphic visual indicator same as a meter/needle indicator.

LED or Light Emitting Diode: A semi-conductor which produces an illuminated visual response.

Loonie: A Canadian dollar. Also, how some of the general public perceive a metal detectorist.

Loop: See Searchcoil

LRL: Long Range Locator. A detecting apparatus capable of reading targets at long distance. Can also be dowsing method.

Matrix: Refers to the total volume of ground penetrated by the transmitted electromagnetic field--which may contain varying amounts and combinations of minerals, metals, salts and moisture.

Metal: Metallic substances such as iron, foil, nickel, aluminum, gold, brass, lead, copper, silver, etc. But you knew that already, didn't you?

Metal Detectorist: A person operating a metal detector in the field. This name is preferred by many over Treasure Hunter. Also, a repetitive motion injury from too much detector swinging or digging.

Meter: A detector component that provides visual information to aid in target identification. Meters feature either an LCD or needle indicator which may display intensity of signal, target depth, target identification, type of metal, or battery condition. Also, how far you may have to dig when your detector detects a beer can at 3 feet.

Mineral-Free Discriminator: Any metal detector that can reject or ignore trash metals while simultaneously balancing ground mineralization.

Mineralized Ground: Any soil that contains conductive or nonconductive components.

Mode: A condition of operation, selected by the operator, for specific desired function(s). Also, what has to be done to the lawn before you can sneak off to go detecting.

Motion Discriminator: A detector type that requires searchcoil motion to activate its simultaneous ground balance and discriminate functions. See also Mineral-Free Discriminator and VLF/TR

Narrow Response: a target that produces an audio response so short that pinpointing is almost not needed.

Negative Ground: Soil that contains nonconductive minerals which have a negative or nulling effect on an air-tuned threshold.

Negative Response: Indicates reduction or loss of tone. Also, the reply from a spouse about a desire to go metal detecting.

Neutral Ground: Soil that has no nonconductive or conductive mineral properties. Lacks mineralization.

Ni-Cad or Nickel-Cadmium: A rechargeable type of battery cell.

NIMH or Nickel Metal Hydride: A rechargeable type of battery cell that doesn't have to be completely discharged before recharging (like Ni-Cads do)---otherwise known as memory.

Non-Ferrous: Not of iron. Metals of the precious class (i.e.. gold, silver, copper, etc.)

No-Motion: Refers to any mode of operation that does not require searchcoil motion to trigger target response. Also called non-motion.

Notch Accept: Operation whereby all target responses are "tuned-out" except those the instrument is adjusted to accept in the notch "window".

Notch Discrimination: Filtering circuitry which allows a "window" of desirable targets to be accepted within the entire rejection range of unaccepted targets, i.e.. rejecting nails, foil and pulltabs while accepting nickels and gold rings of the same conductivity. This circuitry can also be adjusted to reject all metal targets while accepting only a specific conductivity range.

Notch Level: a control used to select the target level or target conductivity which the notch filter will act upon.

Notch Reject: Operation whereby all targets within the notch width at chosen notch level will be "tuned-out".

Notch Width: a finite discrimination range of target conductivities ("window") at the chosen notch level.

Null: The zone just below audible threshold in metal detector tuning. This also refers to the momentary drop or quiet response of threshold sound as the searchcoil passes over a discriminated or rejected target.

Overlap: The amount of searchcoil swing advance not greater than the searchcoil's physical diameter.

Overshoot: A common false signal heard as the searchcoil passes over a rejected target when using a no-motion All Metal mode in conjunction with automatic retuning. excessive tuning restoration pushes the audio above threshold level creating a positive response at the edges of target detection periphery. Also, when an irate property owner's bullet goes over your head.

Phase Response: The length of time between eddy current generation sustained on a metal's surface and the resultant secondary electromagnetic field effect on the searchcoil's receive winding. Related to target conductivity. Fay's Response: "I never said that!"

Pinpointing (aka PP): Finding the exact target location with respect to a searchcoil's designated center. Accomplished by interpreting the centers of audio response width in perpendicular direction or scans. See also Detuning.

Plug: A roundcut divot of grass and dirt removed to obtain access to a buried target that you better replace if you want to be allowed to return to the site you are detecting! And don’t let me catch you not doing it!

Pocket Spill: What falls out of people’s pockets when they sit down at the water’s edge at the beach or at a park, do cartwheels, stand on their heads, sit on the lawn. They make us smile!

Positive Ground: Soil which contains conductive minerals or moist salts which have a positive or upward effect on an air-tuned threshold.

PI or Pulse Induction: A mode of operation where the transmitter circuit pulses and electrical current into the ground before it quickly shuts down. The eddy currents dissipate immediately from poor conductors such as wet salt sand and ground minerals. Metals hold eddy currents because they are better conductors. When the receiver circuit comes on, it picks up the returning signal from metal; the eddy currents in the ground minerals have already disappeared.

PM: In TQ speak, a private message.

Probe: A mostly secondary detector used by a detectorist to locate a target such as a coin in a dighole so as not to scratch or damage it during excavation.

Quick Response: A short time period between metal sensing and peak audio/visual indicator indication usually associated with all frequency ranges of TR detectors.

Rejection: an indication of target nonacceptance by a null in threshold or broken sound while operating in a discriminate mode. Also, being kicked out of a park or a search site.

Relic: an object having interest by reason of its age or its association with the past. Also. a detectorist who consistently finds coins that are younger than he is!

RF-Two Box: A radio frequency detector having its own transmit and receive winding separate and in an orthogonal configuration. This detector is capable of deep large object detection while naturally ignoring small targets such as nails and individual coins.

SAC - A Sacagawea dollar. It is rumored that nearly half of its minting (500 million dollars) ended up in Ecuador, El Salvador and other Latin American countries that adopted the American dollar as their standard currency.

Scan: Refers to 1) the effective searchcoil detection width or 2) searchcoil movement over the ground.

Scrubbing: The searchcoil is pressed and held in contact with the ground while searching to maintain even audio threshold. With newer detectors, this technique is used to gain depth.

Sea Glass: Pieces of glass bottles that have been ground smooth by wave and sand action over time. Becoming harder to find.

Searchcoil: A circular (or other shaped) plastic housing containing single or multiple transmit and receive windings (wire coils) in a specific configuration. A searchcoil emits and receives signals from the ground and metal targets. Also called loop, coil or head.

Searchcoil Cable: An electrostatically shielded cable of conductors (wires) which convey signals to and from the search coil and control housing.

Sensitivity: The capacity of a metal detector to perceive changes in conductivity within the detection pattern. Generally, the more sensitivity a detector can smoothly provide, the more depth it will achieve in sensing targets.

Signal: An audio response or visual indication alerting the operator that a target has been detected.

Signal Width: The total distance of ground an audio signal is sustained during searchcoil travel or scan.

Silent Search: Refers to detectors capable of producing a target signal while operating below the threshold audio. Also called silent operation.

Scuff Cover: A protective cover for the searchcoil bottom. Also called coil cover or skid plate.

Silver coin: One that usually pre-dates 1965 because it has a higher silver content.

SLH: A Standing Liberty Half-dollar. AKA: WLH

Slow Motion: A description of searchcoil speed required to operate the motion discriminate mode. Also, what the passing of winter seems like to a detectorist in the snow-belt.

Stability: The ability of a metal detector to maintain manually adjusted tuning threshold under the effects of outside interference. See also Drift.

Surface Area: Refers to the area of a target closest to the searchcoil where eddy current generation can take place.

Surface Mount: The art of mounting electronic components on the surface of a printed circuit board rather than using the "through board" method. This allows more technology in a much smaller space and with much higher tolerances.

Suzi B, SooBee or SBA - A Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Aka: "Carter Dollar" "Anthony quarter". It is rumored they may be taken out of circulation by the Treasury but that's still under study for now. So, hold on to your Suzies!

Sweep: The motion employed in moving the searchcoil across the ground.

Target: Refers to any object that causes an audio or visual response in a detector.

Target Masking: When large sizes or high concentrations of trash metals drive the threshold into the null zone suppressing weaker, positive responses from deeper or smaller targets.

Target Response: See Signal.

Ten-Turn: A control which can be manually rotated ten times to cover the full electrical range of the function. Usually associated with tuning or ground balance function.

Test Garden: A mapped plot of buried targets at various depths to aid in learning characteristic target responses and in comparing metal detector performances under a given ground mineral content. Also called test plot or test bed.

TH'er, TH'ing: Universal word contractions for treasure hunter and treasure hunting. Also know as Metal Detectorist.

Threshold: Continuous tone that establishes a reference point for tuning the detector to ground balance it. The threshold tone also establishes the minimum sound level for deep targets in the discriminate mode.

Tone ID: Circuitry producing different audio tones for each target's conductivity range, i.e., low tone for nickel, high tone for coins.

Toonie: A two-dollar Canadian coin now worth more than two American dollars.

Tot Lot: A playground or other similar public play facility where kids go to play and lose all sorts of interesting finds from coins and toys to silver and gold! They should never be ignored.

TR or Transmitter-Receiver: Term describing method of operation of early detectors. Some manufacturers still produce this type of detector. Electromagnetic field distortion caused by mineralized ground interferes with depth penetration as this type of detector does not ground compensate. It does balance conductive salt water effects so, it is primarily used in salt water and on low mineral salt water beaches or low mineral inland locations.

TQ: Treasurequest

Visual ID: A feature in which a visual indication is produced to help identify the target.

Visual Indicator: A meter, LCD or LED that signals a target's presence.

VLF or Very Low Frequency: See Frequency.

VLF/DISC: Term associated with detectors capable of mineral-free operation in both Discriminate and All Metal modes.

VLF/TR: A class of detector that can operate in both the All Metal, Ground Balance mode and the No-Motion Discriminate, Non-Ground Balance mode.

Wide Response: A target that produces an audio signal over an area wider than the searchcoil diameter.

Wide Scan: A coplanar searchcoil with two "D" shaped transmit and receive windings positioned back to back and overlapping. This searchcoil type is capable of detecting a target across at least its full diameter. Also called Double-D or 2-D.

WLH: Walking Liberty Half-Dollar. AKA: SLH.

Young Queen's Head or YQH: Canadian coin depicting a young portrait of the Queen. Current coins are called "Mature Queen's Head" which must be a better than "Old Queens Head". I doubt she'd be amused....

Zero Discrimination: Used to describe detectors whose discrimination control allows the acceptance of all metals at zero setting

Zinc: A post 1982 penny that has a zinc core.

925: A grade of silver, also known as Sterling Silver. Grades can vary but 925 is the standard.


Please send a message to Steve in PR if you want to suggest an addition or a definition.