[split] <p><strong>I recently took up metal detecting again after a 15-year absence as it is something I was always fascinated by, but having three young children meant that I never had the time to pursue it .</strong> The kids are now older so I bought myself a popular beginners machine and joined a group and set about attending weekly dig meetings at various locations around North East England.</p> <p>I was having limited success with my detector, finding a few interesting items but I was enviously watching my fellow members unearthing hammered silver coins and all manner of artefacts and felt I was merely scratching the surface. I was now truly bitten by the bug and so decided it was time to upgrade to a more capable machine.</p> <p>After much research I decided it had to be a Minelab but which Minelab? I finally decided based on my budget and experience level that a brand new Safari was the way to go. On my second outing with the Safari I found my first hammered silver coin, an Edward I penny not in the best condition but my first hammered.</p> <p>The very next week I found two hammered silver coins, one being the pictured Edward I farthing. The Safari picked out the tiny coin with ease, my eyes on the other hand struggled to find it amongst the excavated earth even with the assistance of a pin point probe.</p> <p>My latest and probably oldest, most beautiful find to date is this early medieval zoomorphic buckle fragment again a relatively small object picked out with ease by the Safari. I was worried after reading about all the tones, sounds and learning curves that I might struggle with any higher end detector but I was amazed by the relative simplicity and performance of the Safari. I don't even need to use any discrimination just stick it in all metal on ferrous sounds ignore the low grunts and dig the everything else.</p> <p>Sure I dig my share of shotgun cartridges but I know if I walk over it I'm not gonna miss it with my Safari. I was already bitten by the detecting bug but now I have bitten by the Minelab bug to.</p>