Originally Posted by Tom_in_CA
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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 
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
Like Tom said, you should head out towards the gold country.
