Inexpensive easy-build design that has good penetration and discrimination capabilities, helping you find the valuables, but not the iron and tin dross!

Metal detecting is a popular pastime. The author himself, with his son, located a wreck with an old EE design - uncovering, among other things, small items of gold and pinfire ammunition. There are two significant barriers, however, to owning and operating one's own metal detector. The first is cost. A good metal detector may easily cost a hundred UK pounds plus, and this may not represent an offhand investment, particularly for young people.

The second is complexity. A typical metal detector may comprise fifty or a hundred components even without the hardware, and this would represent a serious challenge to many constructors, not to mention the time involved.

Alternatively, one can settle for a simpler and cheaper design. However, while such designs may initially provide good fun, they typically have poor depth of penetration, a predilection for rusty iron, and poor stability.

The author's aim with this design was to create a minimalist induction balance (I.B.) metal detector, while also achieving good performance. This method of metal detection has a good depth of penetration, and distinguishes well between ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It is also capable to a large extent of rejecting iron, and also tin foil. This is a boon for anyone who is searching in the first instance for coins or noble metals.