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Hey guys, I have always been fascinated by ancient artifacts, but I've never had any time to try to find any. I have time now and I want to try metal detecting and see if I can find anything.

I currently live In San Francisco California, and I was wondering if anyone knows any good areas to start at near or at the most a two hour car ride from SF. Thanks.

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"Ancient Artifacts" ? In or around San Francisco ? Depends on what you mean by "ancient artifacts" . I'm afraid you're going to have to content yourself with wheat pennies and merc's, at the oldest, if you're just starting out. And when you get better, you might advance up to seateds and maybe even a reale or whatever "within 2 hrs. of SF"

But for now, if you just picked up a detector, you should "cut your teeth" on clad, for dozens of hunts. Just to get used to the machine, the sounds, the settings, etc.... You can go to just about any SF muni park (GGP, etc...) and find copious amounts of modern change.

As long as it's not any of the new-turfed ones : Several sections of several SF parks underwent renovation/overhauls in recent years. But I can think of parks there were I can get 200 clad in a day if I wanted (pennies and dimes as fast as you care to dig). Other parks there are better for cherry picking silver from amidst the junk.

But for now, "pay your dues" and dig oodles of clad for awhile :cool:

I have hit S.F. parks and it's mostly clad, they have been dug up and redone by the city so good luck with old coins:no:
Like Tom said, you should head out towards the gold country.:yes:

There's still silver in some of the SF parks. If you know which ones, and know how to do it. But it aint like the old days, for sure. :roll:


I have gotten reales , many seateds, and even 1 of my gold coins, "w/in 2 hrs. of SF", and not in the easterly direction of the G.R. country. There was plenty of 1850s-70s history in the immediate area of SF, assuming it's not covered with asphalt.

Research is always the starting point.
Old maps, government records, newspaper articles and photos will assist you in finding that "needle in a haystack" historical area that no one else has thought important enough to detect.

I got into the hobby focused entirely on detecting. Quickly discovered that research is literally half of the hobby. Glad I really enjoy reading and collecting books. :lol:

Welcome to the forum. What they said.... Also, a helpful tool for finding old locations is this Map site. Also, what detector did you plan to get? Do not cheap out on pinpointer.

I'd suggest trying your own yard first (if you have one that is, SF isn't well known for large private yards :) )

This will help you to learn to dig a proper plug, and if you screw up (and you will, we all have :) ) it's your yard. If you don't have a yard, ask friends and family if you can detect their yards, for the same reason. Plus, private yards are great places to find older goodies, since in theory they may not have been detected before.

If you don't have access to private property, then as others have said, check out local parks, but be careful when digging plugs, you don't want to be "that guy" who gives MDers a bad name by leaving holes or poorly dug plugs.

Welcome to the wonderful world of detecting though.


What detector do you have?