Have You Ever Owned A Better Machine For Nickles?!

[Critterhunter]

I don't know about you guys but I've dug more nickles with my GT than I have on any other machine. Thanks to the increased resolution in the low and middle scale on a Sovereign I can cherry pick nickels out of a sea of pull tabs and other junk. If they read 142 to 146 and the ID doesn't bounce or only slightly bounces a digit or two I'll put money on it being a nickel. If the ID changes a bit more it's either an odd shaped piece of trash or a beaver tail. As a result I've been regularly popping old nickles from the 40's and such that you can tell have been in the ground a long time and just missed by other machines that don't feature as high of resolution in that target range to split hairs on stuff. I have dug a few nickles that read as low as 138 but you can still tell by the stabile ID and audio that it's going to be a nickle. I've popped more war nickles with this machine too. Despite the silver content they still read around 144 to 146 for me using noise band 2, which I always use. I keep expecting my first shield nickel with this GT.

 

[Rob in (Ca)]

I don't have a meter on my GT, While at the Beach this weekend I got several nickels hits...... it's a pretty clear mid tone, that it's going to be a nickel or maybe a Ring?

 

[GunnarMN]

the tesoroes do well on nickles and they are no problem for the GT but i must say I have never found a buffalow nickle, not the GT falt if it beeps i dig it and nails when i can

 

[Rob in (Ca)]

My test garden has several 3" - 6" deep clad nickels, some detectors id them in the Iron Range? there surly not nickels machines.

my GT and V3I hit very well on all the nickels

 

[JimmyCT]

Hi Critterhunter,

hmmm my meter hits them at around 146-148 and my meter is calibrated to hit on a clad quarter at 180. I haven't found an old nickel yet but I will agree with you - I have never dug so many nickels until I bought my GT.

I don't know about you guys but I've dug more nickles with my GT than I have on any other machine. Thanks to the increased resolution in the low and middle scale on a Sovereign I can cherry pick nickels out of a sea of pull tabs and other junk. If they read 142 to 146 and the ID doesn't bounce or only slightly bounces a digit or two I'll put money on it being a nickel. If the ID changes a bit more it's either an odd shaped piece of trash or a beaver tail. As a result I've been regularly popping old nickles from the 40's and such that you can tell have been in the ground a long time and just missed by other machines that don't feature as high of resolution in that target range to split hairs on stuff. I have dug a few nickles that read as low as 138 but you can still tell by the stabile ID and audio that it's going to be a nickle. I've popped more war nickles with this machine too. Despite the silver content they still read around 144 to 146 for me using noise band 2, which I always use. I keep expecting my first shield nickel with this GT.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Hit a spot that was solid nickles, I think it was once a area where they threw coins in the straw for the kids to find for a few years and someone must detect it and rejects the pull tabs so they get no nickles. I thought it was only a few nickles so I was giving them to the kids that were watching me, didn't know they would be that many nickles. After I got tired of doing this I ask them to count what they had and if I am not mistaken it was 167 or right around that.
Now for normal the first year I ran a Sovereign in 1997 I got more nickles than I did new dimes, that too was many areas people rejected pull tabs is why so many. Nickles have a certain tone to them that is a little different then the beaver tails plus beaver tails read 140-141 while my nickles used to read 143-144, but soon found out some war nickles will read as high as 151, but still have that nickle tone to them. Now some of the real old and deep nickles I have seen in the 139-141 range, but still have that nice nickle to to them. The one that shocked me was a 141 that had a deep nickle tone to it and sounded real deep as it was weak signal so I know modern trash wouldn't be that deep, turned out to be my oldest and nicest gold ring I have ever found.
The Sovereign is a nickle magnet and in my 38 years of detecting never seen one as hot as the Sovereigns when you get to know it.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Critter,I think the Sovereign is the best detector for nickles.My numbers change a little for V nickles and Buffalo's 137-140. I think those who don't use a meter are at a big disadvantage for finding nickles. HH Ron

 

[fwcrawford]

I have to agree with the rest... yes the Sovereign hits very well and IDs nickels good with a distint sound from pull tabls.
Shortly after starting to use one, I went to a local park and found 21 nickels which is far more than I have ever found with any other detector at one time.
My Vaquero also hits them well too, but due to no Visual aid, You have to deal with the pull tabs also.
On one hunt with the Sovereign I got a signal that was reading much higher than a nickel, but dug it since it was sounding like it had some depth and soon recovered a buffalo nickel.
Thinking to myself that this was a high ID number for a nickel, I scanned the hole with my pinpointer and low and behold, I recovered another nickel sized coin and after a little cleaning, I realized that it was a V nickel.
Never done this before. As best as I can remember, I think the number was a little bouncy, but it was reading in the 160 range. The only explanation I can come up for this is that the coins were lying very close together and maybe overlapped some causing the higher reading.

 

[locusman]

Yes, that's quite true. Sovereign is an excellent nickel machine. It is much better than my Fisher CZ-7 at locating them, even though the Fisher is a "decent" nickel machine. The only machine I would give a slight edge to for nickels over the sov is my Golden Sabre Plus (manufactured circa 1989) - it is a superb nickel machine. But the sov is awfully good too - like you say they come in consistently around 142-146 on the 180 meter, with that nice smooth tone. Unfortunately, my 180 meter for my Sov Xs-2a pro bit the dust last year and now I bought a 550 meter, but nickels id's aren't as consistent on it even though they still sound good. And you can get some good depth on them with the sovereign too - I just wish gold rings would always give that nice smooth signal like a nickel does.

Sov is a great machine, that's for sure. I wish that Minelab would keep making it. Now, it's all Etrac and Explorer talk. I still think the sov is hard to beat. And it's reasonably priced - unlike some others they make.

Mark

 

[Bling]

iv owned over 200 detectors and nothing comes close to the Sovereign on Nic's...or Gold for that matter! when you find a Gold earing stud the size of a BB 8" deep and dimes @ 15" there is not much to doubt about your detector. i had a Tesoro Tejon and a CZ5 that were good but nothing as good as the Sovereign and Excal! also nothing iv owned will touch the Sov & Excal on target ID tone...