Original Sovereign + Coinsearch Coil...few others can match!!

[Arthur-Canada]

I have been using my 1991 model Sovereign with the Coinsearch coil for about 4 years now. I purchased it used from a detector dealer for $500. The first time out with it I almost threw it back in the trunk of my car within a 1/2 hour in disgust. It is so different from any other machine I had tried that I figured there was no way I could ever find a thing with it. I was detecting near a radio tower and making the mistake many of us make when we first start out in detecting...sensitivity set too high. The machine was chattering like popcorn in my ears.

I decided to go to another site further away from the tower and try again. I had hunted this park many times with my White's and Bounty Hunter and found a fair number of silver coins. I tried an area that I had found a handful of coins before. After detecting the area (about 10' x 10') for about 15 minutes, I found three silver coins down 4" to 5". Why I had not found them before I could not answer. But how this Sovereign found them is what began to endear this machine to me. Within a couple of weeks I found my very first pre-1900 coin in September of that detecting season after detecting for three years. By the end of the year I had added another 16 pre-1900 coins to my tally.

To this day I am well over 200 pre-1900 coins and still going strong. I have been out detecting in groups with folks using other machine brands as well as Explorers. I have my bad days, but no other machine I have seen can consistently find old deep coins time after time...not even the Explorer. Our detecting group has a habit of checking each others signals all the time and I have yet to encounter a signal first found by the Explorer (unless it is over 10 inches deep) that the Sovereign cannot get a good dig signal as well. However, the number of times the Sovereign has got a good dig signal that the Explorer could not register well has happened so many time I have lost count. This has happened so many times that one of my detecting buddies that has used an Explorer for 5 years now is in the market for an older Sovereign with the Coinsearch coil.

I'm sure every good detector model out there can find most of the old coins I find with my Sovereign, but I don't see it happening. I think the difference is that when it is old deep (over 6 inches) silver or copper coins, the Sovereign has a very distinctive high pitched squeal that tells you..."you have a keeper here"! At this point, not even the meter can confirm or deny what the machine is saying...the sound is all you need in two directions to confirm the target. Some say the key to this performance is in the 8 inch "Coinsearch" coil. I believe it, because I have used a new 10" Sovereign open coil and did not get nearly the performance from the machine. The 10" may get me a bit more depth, but I doubt it could find old deep coins like my 8" "Coinsearch" coil. I almost never detect with the sensitivity over 25% strength and in fact in trashy areas set it at the lowest setting possible, but still pull out coins at 6" no problem.

 

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[DaChief]

You are right about the stock coil. I have used my Sovereign with both Stock Coils, the 8 inch and the 10 inch and have gotten tremendous depth.

Reading posts from experienced hunters, you will find that the bulk state that the machine is best balanced electronically to the stock coils that they are shipped with and that any other coil added on afterwards is not as efficient with the machine.

Great observation and great post.

Jim

 

[sphillips]

I'm new to this site and have yet to purchase a detector. I'm leaning towards the Sovereign because of the reviews on this site. My question is, the Sovereign GT has no meter, but most other detectors do. Is audible better than the visual of a meter?

Thanks

 

[EDDE]

minelab doesn't support the chip/chip set any longer
they no longer have the original sov chip in stock if it fries out
it is no longer repairable threw minelabs repair department

 

[Arthur-Canada]

minelab doesn't support the chip/chip set any longer
they no longer have the original sov chip in stock if it fries out
it is no longer repairable threw minelabs repair department

I had my chip fry out about two years ago and they just sent me an old board with the chip in it and I had to unsolder all 48 pins myself to replace the one in mine. My chip fried from no fault of its own...I replaced the battery and connected the wires reversed polarity by mistake (they weren't colour coded - red and black, so I goofed).

 

[Arthur-Canada]

I'm new to this site and have yet to purchase a detector. I'm leaning towards the Sovereign because of the reviews on this site. My question is, the Sovereign GT has no meter, but most other detectors do. Is audible better than the visual of a meter?

It's all in the sound my friend! The meter is just a guide to suggest what might be under the coil. If you can learn the machine without a meter you will find far more keepers than folks who rely too heavily on the meter. I have dug the say type of pre-1900 coins with this machine that registered sometimes 174 and other times 170 (same as screwcaps)on my Sunray meter...but the sound was always that high pitched distinctive one when you know you have a keeper. I have returened to sights that I hunted only with the meter in the first year and have found new old coins I ignored the first time because of their meter reading.

 

[EDDE]

minelab doesn't support the chip/chip set any longer
they no longer have the original sov chip in stock if it fries out
it is no longer repairable threw minelabs repair department

I had my chip fry out about two years ago and they just sent me an old board with the chip in it and I had to unsolder all 48 pins myself to replace the one in mine. My chip fried from no fault of its own...I replaced the battery and connected the wires reversed polarity by mistake (they weren't colour coded - red and black, so I goofed).

opps good point

 

[NeilinFR]

I have been using my 1991 model Sovereign with the Coinsearch coil for about 4 years now. I purchased it used from a detector dealer for $500. The first time out with it I almost threw it back in the trunk of my car within a 1/2 hour in disgust. It is so different from any other machine I had tried that I figured there was no way I could ever find a thing with it. I was detecting near a radio tower and making the mistake many of us make when we first start out in detecting...sensitivity set too high. The machine was chattering like popcorn in my ears.

I decided to go to another site further away from the tower and try again. I had hunted this park many times with my White's and Bounty Hunter and found a fair number of silver coins. I tried an area that I had found a handful of coins before. After detecting the area (about 10' x 10') for about 15 minutes, I found three silver coins down 4" to 5". Why I had not found them before I could not answer. But how this Sovereign found them is what began to endear this machine to me. Within a couple of weeks I found my very first pre-1900 coin in September of that detecting season after detecting for three years. By the end of the year I had added another 16 pre-1900 coins to my tally.

To this day I am well over 200 pre-1900 coins and still going strong. I have been out detecting in groups with folks using other machine brands as well as Explorers. I have my bad days, but no other machine I have seen can consistently find old deep coins time after time...not even the Explorer. Our detecting group has a habit of checking each others signals all the time and I have yet to encounter a signal first found by the Explorer (unless it is over 10 inches deep) that the Sovereign cannot get a good dig signal as well. However, the number of times the Sovereign has got a good dig signal that the Explorer could not register well has happened so many time I have lost count. This has happened so many times that one of my detecting buddies that has used an Explorer for 5 years now is in the market for an older Sovereign with the Coinsearch coil.

I'm sure every good detector model out there can find most of the old coins I find with my Sovereign, but I don't see it happening. I think the difference is that when it is old deep (over 6 inches) silver or copper coins, the Sovereign has a very distinctive high pitched squeal that tells you..."you have a keeper here"! At this point, not even the meter can confirm or deny what the machine is saying...the sound is all you need in two directions to confirm the target. Some say the key to this performance is in the 8 inch "Coinsearch" coil. I believe it, because I have used a new 10" Sovereign open coil and did not get nearly the performance from the machine. The 10" may get me a bit more depth, but I doubt it could find old deep coins like my 8" "Coinsearch" coil. I almost never detect with the sensitivity over 25% strength and in fact in trashy areas set it at the lowest setting possible, but still pull out coins at 6" no problem.

Arthur that is right on the money with the sensitivity setting. One of the "problems" with the Sov is that it can be hard to tell if your setting the sensitivity to high since it wont chatter at high sens settings like other detectors, but it will still be set to high causing falsing(digging nails) and so on. I mostly hunt between 3 oclock and 1 oclock on my sens setting and that 1 oclock setting is strickly for the ocean beaches with minimal black sand.
That minimal setting works great for me also and Ive used it many times.
Thanks for sharing, youve learned your Sov well it sounds like.
HH
Neil

 

[UncleVinnys]

Wow, great post, Arthur! THANKS!

Yeah, I found a good deal on that original Sovereign on an eBay sale, and turned it on for
the first time yesterday.

YeeHaaahhh! What a detector.
I had been working with the X-Terra 30, which is a good machine, but all this time, in the back of my head I'm wondering "is that all there is?"

I turned this old clunker on, and Ba-Boom - right away all I could do was turn everything down.
It is almost TOO sensitive.
Then the sounds!
Or should I say "Oh, the Music!"

Had a lot of trouble to start, then realized I was in all metal mode.
Switched to much lower sensitivity, discrim mode, and worked a local park.
Started pulling them in. Right away you learn the sound of true coins
versus junk. Picked up 3 dimes, two quarters, a penny, and two nickels in
the first half hour, in an area I had gone over with the X-Terra 30.
Still having some trouble with pinpointing, but hey, it's still the first day.

This thing sings.
Whereas the X-Terra has 4 tones, like a guitar-tuning pitch pipe, the Sov SINGS!
An orchestra of sound!
So I try it on different coins. The coins literally pop out at you.
Kinda like "Buh-WAHH-uhh" for keepers.
The bottle caps have a distinctive flat tone, like the loser buzzer on a quiz show.

All-in-all: VERY impressed with this old clunker.
Now the problem is: Do I go for the new Sov GT or stick with this beauty?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Wow, great post, Arthur! THANKS!


Now the problem is: Do I go for the new Sov GT or stick with this beauty?

It only gets better

 

[ghostriderinv]

I just purchased a used Sov XS and picked up a Coinsearch coil that just happened to be available on Ebay. Looking forward to seeing how it does for hunts around Northern California for deep coins and appreciate your write up and thread - it helped me decided to invest in this older detector. I also have a Musketeer, an Explorer SE Pro and a Excal II - Wanted a good backup machine for the Explorer, but it looks like the Explorer might just become the backup if this combination works well with the Sov...

 

[BoonvilleKid]

I have inherited an old metal detector; a Minelab sovereign XS. I'm sure to Whites and Garrett machines so I'm kinda lost with how to get started with this one. I've downloaded the manual information from Minelabs site. My immediate problems seem to be:
1. The skid plate on the bottom of the coil has become cracked with age. Can a new one be purchased from Minelab?
2. The machine has a 8" coinsearch coil. It appears that something heavy has been dropped on the top & it's cracked in that location. Only time will tell if any internal damage has been done as I'm confident that Minelab no longer works on these old units.
3. The unit has a Sun Ray DI II screen mounted on it. There does not appear to be anyplace to install batteries in this unit. Is it powered by the Minelab detector?
4. There are no batteries installed with the unit. In fact, there is no try or anything in what I assume is the location for the batteries. Did the unit use alkaline batteries, rechargable batteries or what? Did the unit come with a re-chargable battery pack? Does anyone know if Minelab still sells the original battery pack?
5. The manual I downloaded from Minelab indicates that the unit comes with a "Field Guide". Nothing came with this unit. Is the "Field Guide" worth trying to find?

I appreciate any information someone is willing to give to help me get started (if possible) with this unit. I may be wasting my time but I'm willing to give it a try.

 

[KeyKing321]

I just picked up an original Sovereign and it didn't have the battery pack or cover either, just red and yellow wires hanging out. I had batteries plus make me a 12v 1100 milliamp (sp) pack and I bought a charger from them. Works great. Still don't have the battery compartment door but there is a post on here about using an electrical expansion box cover, so I think I'm going to try that.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[XL-PRO PRO]

A lot of the strength of the XS lies in its ability to "see" past trash and recognize a good target.I dug a "51" Franklin Half that all my other detectors had missed,and after examining the coin,you could actually see rust stains where it had been touching iron.Most detectors"average" the iron and the non-ferrous which would indicate trash, while the XS blocks the iron and shows the target.

 

[Auriemma]

The Sov XS is a serious machine. I recently got mine and I am impressed with its ability to skip Iron (silence) and spot the target. And deep? Deeper than you might care to dig. When it cries like a baby... it is time to dig. Like others have said... maybe too sensitive.

 

[Keppy]

Wow, great post, Arthur! THANKS!

Yeah, I found a good deal on that original Sovereign on an eBay sale, and turned it on for
the first time yesterday.

YeeHaaahhh! What a detector.

I turned this old clunker on, and Ba-Boom - right away all I could do was turn everything down.
It is almost TOO sensitive.
Then the sounds!
Or should I say "Oh, the Music!"




This thing sings.
the Sov SINGS!
An orchestra of sound!

Yes sir i have always said if i could get a alarm clock that sounded like the Sovereign in the morning when it rang …That would be my perfect alarm clock..

 

[Ronfrommichigan]

The Sovereign XS is a great detector,but the Original hits too often on hot rocks for me.HH Ron