Whites Coinmaster Classic 3

When you go back through all the models different manufactures have produced through the years each had what I call their 'golden era', when Whites came up with the coin-master classic series, in my opinion they were all gold. Just like the old Tesoro's, they take some beating when hunting for shallow targets amongst the heavy iron. For me personally, when they started to produce units with screens, the 'analog' quality' fell away. I purchased my machine from Florida and it's in top condition, it will be used on the river to hunt in the iron junk. I don't purchase these types of detectors for inland sites when depth is my priority, none of the machines I use on the foreshore are what I consider to be deep seeking machines other than when I use my Nexus v3 or v3+.

My detector came with an 8' inch coil, the largest I've used on the river is 9.5' and they actually work surprisingly well in both unmasking and separating targets, this is because analogs have a tendency to excel in same plain unmasking. BUT - to be successful you have to learn the audio and go really slow. I've explained time and time again that I run my discrimination on all my machines at the lowest possible setting. Doing this forces you to slow down and it also enables the machines to unmask to the best of their ability, this is still a concept that many 'digital' people seem to misunderstand. If you're going to setup the coin-master the same way you set up a digital machine for iron hunting then you're going to be masking targets and if you're going to swing it like a Deus you might as well throw it in the fucking bin. 

Large Iron?

Another concept many don't seem to understand is how to deal with big iron when using low discrimination, some have tried to discredit me by saying that 'you'll be digging iron all day' with the way I set my machines up. Now the FACT is that just isn't true, this is because I've learnt exactly what to listen for and I use the coil position to help me out. When I come across large iron, both flat and of non-uniform shape, 9 times out of 10 you get an overload signal in the centre and then the signal breaks and falls away on its perimeter. I basically draw the shape of the iron by speeding my swing speed up and visualising what the audio is telling me as I move my coil. It needs to be understood that if you crank your disc up to try and silence the large iron then you're going to be masking targets.  

In regards to operation, it's all pretty simple, the coin-master has a normal\blacksand setting, discrimination/sensitivity, GEB/disc and reset/pinpoint. I find running it in blacksand enables the machine to unmask way better than running it in normal and it boosts the overall sensitivity. The 'normal' setting fails my in ground unmasking scenarios when you start to go over 4' inches, switching to black sand it kicks all the targets exceptionally well with a fuller and sharper target response. Also when running it in black sand it shifts the discrimination meaning that I can set it exactly how I want it, running it in normal the lowest disc point is when the dial is fully to the left.

The GEB setting is basically all metal mode and it is used to dial the threshold in which is accessible underneath the casing, there's a small hole that allows you to adjust a pot inside the machine. I find that the pinpoint is great for sussing out the size of targets, when engaged you start to learn what small, medium and large targets sound like. When I'm hunting where I can keep the coil close to the ground I run the sensitivity at the preset level, when I can't get the coil close to the ground due to obstructions I push it up to maximum. Having it set this high allows the machine to pull the targets through that are in-between the rocks, it's especially effective on coins and buttons that are on edge caught between the larger rocks.

My First Couple Of Hunts

It's actually surprising how stable the unit runs with the sensitivity cranked all the way up, even with it set on preset you can easily detect the tiny hand forged nail heads and small pieces of lead and copper. As with all my machines when you swing over what you perceive to be a tiny target if you slow your speed down to isolate it the tone actually gets wider. I've also found that the smaller targets give a louder tone in the ground than they do in air. Below is an image showing exactly how I have it set up to hunt on the river, as usual my discrimination setting is very precise. 

To conclude, the Whites Coin-Master 3 is a very capable machine when it's set up correctly and when you've got its language down. The highlight for me is the audio, it's sharp, punchy and panoramic, as I've mentioned before, going slow in the iron with a low disc setting will get results even with the larger coils. Ergonomically it feels great in the hands, you can have the control box positioned under the arm cuff or just below the handle on the shaft. Would I Use This Machine For Depth In The Fields? no I wouldn't, for what I'm using it for it's a fantastic performing detector.