In a method for determination of a position of a local coil on a bed in at least one spatial direction within a magnetic resonance scanner, a signal intensity value is initially, extracted from magnetic resonance measurements implemented with the appertaining local coil for acquisition of magnetic resonance images of an examination subject and/or for measurement of further system parameters at each of various positions of the recumbent bed relative to the tomograph. The functional dependency of the extracted signal intensity values on the position of the bed relative to the scanner is then determined. The position of the local coil on the bed is determined on the basis of the determined functional dependency. A corresponding control device for a magnetic resonance system and a computer program product implement the method.