In case you haven’t noticed, the price of gold is skyrocketing. There are many reasons for this, all of which are too long to discuss in this guide, but there’s no denying it - Gold is going up, up, up! And the more us detectorists find, well, the sooner our machines are paid for!

So it’s no surprise that a question I’ve gotten a lot lately is: “Do I need a detector specifically made to find gold?”

The answer: “Yes, if you’re looking for gold nuggets. Not necessarily if you’re just looking for gold jewelry.”

First, you’ve got to understand the difference between your regular metal detector and one that’s made to search for gold - Don’t worry, it’s easy.

You see, gold detectors like the Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger, the Minelab Eureka Gold or the Fisher Gold Bug II are made specifically to find natural gold - That is, gold nuggets, completely untouched or changed by man. They’re optimized to be more sensitive to natural gold and traditionally have much higher frequencies.

For example, the Minelab Eureka Gold metal detector features three frequencies for you to work on. The 6.4 kHz frequency is for locating targets at their maximum depth, it goes deeper to find the larger nuggets. The 20 kHz frequency is more sensitive, perfect for finding small nuggets and general detecting. Finally there is a 60 kHz frequency which detects the smallest gold flake with super sensitivity.

In addition to higher frequencies, gold-specific detectors also have better ground balancing circuits and special coils that are optimized for the highly-mineralized soil that is predominate where gold nuggets lie (think of ‘black sand’). For example: The Garrett Scorpion Gold Stinger features 15kHz ‘Groundhog’ circuitry which gives you the power to detect treasure within heavily mineralized soil and sample ore as well as those dreaded ‘hot rocks.’ And when you’re looking for pure gold nuggets, a more sophisticated circuitry is crucial.

So what about your regular, all-purpose metal detector? Well, there’s good news!

Coin detectors can pick up gold jewelry because it has a much greater mass then gold nuggets. Gold jewelry is also easy for all-purpose metal detectors to pick up because of the other metals that are used to make a specific piece. And while just about any machine will pick up gold jewelry, some of the higher priced models will have twice the sensitivity for gold jewelry - the Minelab X-Terra series, Explorer series and Fisher’s F-75 and F-4 are just a few off the top of my head that are excellent for finding gold jewelry. The Garrett GTI 2500 and GTP 1350 are also well-known for their gold jewelry capabilities.

Meanwhile, if you have a submersible machine like the Minelab Excalibur series, Garrett’s Sea Hunter Mark II or Infinium LS, you’re even better off. These machines are made to balance through salt water and highly mineralized ground, so they’re highly effective at finding gold jewelry.

So the moral of this story: Gold prices are going up and chances are your all-purpose metal detector will find all the gold jewelry you could want! But your best bet is getting an all-purpose machine that costs around $350.00 or up. Check out our sponsors for more information on specific metal detectors and get ready to cash in your gold!