A little help fellas... A friend of mine sent home this Sovereign with me. Pretty nice shape and has the manual and charger. Looks like he bought it new in 1996. He is 73. It has a Minelab meter on it and a Minelab Coinsearch coil. I know nothing of these machines but it does work. Can anyone give me a ballpark value on it? I already own an Equinox 600 and an Explorer SE so I don't need it. Thanks! Ted
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Minelab "The Sovereign" A few questions...
- Thread starter Ted S
- Start date
Odanscoils
Well-known member
Sad
That's a Sweet machine.
A special machine actually.
That's a Sweet machine.
A special machine actually.
JimmyCT
Well-known member
I agree. My Sov GT has found me a ton of old coins.
JimmyCT
Well-known member
The depth will certainly surprise you. Guaranteed to rival the equinox and a bit more. What model Sovereign do you have ?
Odanscoils
Well-known member
It definitely goes Deeper.
Even the straight Sovereign.
Put a 13" Ultimate coil on it.
You'll fall in love.
Remember
When it nulls on iron.
It will still hit on good targets.
Love mine.
Look and see if it says Minelab Sovereign XS as it would be the second generation and one of the best they made, if the coil say coinsearch on it it is possibly the 8 inch one and it too is the easiest to learn the Sovereign with and preferred by many and hard to find, but these are not waterproof like the other coils were..
Take a patience to use and once you do learn it you seem to learn more and more every time you use it. You can never go too slow, but can goo to fast and lose depth or the real weak signals. These hate iron and break up the signals so you know it is iron. Most people hate the Sovereign when they first got it and some got rid of them and those that got to know them find they are one of the best detector there was.
First time user I recommend the sensitivity set all the counter clock wise until it click which i auto and easier to understand . As you get to know it you can go to manual which when you turn it clockwise right out of the click will be max sensitivity and the more clock wise get less sensitivity, backward from what you think it would be, To me I always use disc so you you can reject iron and use the tone to know what is under the coil.
Depth I got deeper coins with my Sovereign and did side my side with the Explorer XS with a friend of mine, only because I went slow and easy an know what to listen too because I got to know my Sovereigns and have tried all the model made and I have a GT now as it is a bit more powerfull, but the XS would be my second choice of the detector for me, just wish they were no so heavy.
Rick
Good luck with it and remember to go slow and listen close to what it is telling and when you get a iffy signal do the Sovereign wiggle and it is is a good target the tone will be easier to and louder too..
Take a patience to use and once you do learn it you seem to learn more and more every time you use it. You can never go too slow, but can goo to fast and lose depth or the real weak signals. These hate iron and break up the signals so you know it is iron. Most people hate the Sovereign when they first got it and some got rid of them and those that got to know them find they are one of the best detector there was.
First time user I recommend the sensitivity set all the counter clock wise until it click which i auto and easier to understand . As you get to know it you can go to manual which when you turn it clockwise right out of the click will be max sensitivity and the more clock wise get less sensitivity, backward from what you think it would be, To me I always use disc so you you can reject iron and use the tone to know what is under the coil.
Depth I got deeper coins with my Sovereign and did side my side with the Explorer XS with a friend of mine, only because I went slow and easy an know what to listen too because I got to know my Sovereigns and have tried all the model made and I have a GT now as it is a bit more powerfull, but the XS would be my second choice of the detector for me, just wish they were no so heavy.
Rick
Good luck with it and remember to go slow and listen close to what it is telling and when you get a iffy signal do the Sovereign wiggle and it is is a good target the tone will be easier to and louder too..
It does have the 8" coil on it. I found a couple of issues with it. I took the battery pack out to charge it and somebody used butt splices on the wires from the control box to the battery. One splice was loose so I took it to a friends house. he cut the splice out and soldered the wire and also put heat shrink on it. We will do the other splice some other time. I also noticed the coil cover has a crack in it. We took it to a field that has yielded silver before and after a crash course from the instruction manual,my friend ran it. I ran my Equinox 600. Targets are few and far between in this hard hit field but he did come up with some modern coins and some old bullets. I hit a deep signal and it said it was a penny on my Equinox. He came over to check the target and the Sovereign hit it too. It was a well worn Indian head cent around 8" deep. He is glad he has volume controls on his headphones as he said the detector is very loud. It was 50* yesterday with 25 mph west winds. We hunted around 4 hours and called it a day. Ted
Nauti
Well-known member
Sounds like the original sovereign mk1......quite a rare machine these days.I can't comment on the performance of the mk1 but i own a GT and i would put it up against any minelab currently available,its an old machine but its performance was far ahead of its time.I owned an se and an etrac.......both of those were sold and the Gt kept.........that should tell you something ahout the sovereign range.Most of the sovereign models have great performance.
Odanscoils
Well-known member
The Sovereign GT I believe is the Best machine ever made. I have most coils for it. The 13" Ultimate is incredible. Very light and deep.
I also picked up a Nel Snake coil, that so far is much more powerful than i expected. Seems to really pic between targets better than anything I've put on it.
Just got permission for an early 1800's homestead today.
Hopefully I can get my broken body to work it.
So Ted I'd hang onto it a bit and give it a run for it's money.
When that threshold dips. You've got a Deeeep target.
Nauti...Thanks for the help! I did find a pic of it on that auction place and it is indeed a mk1! The one on the auction site does not have a meter on it...Mine does...
fwcrawford
Well-known member
That looks like the very first model they came out with.
I think there were about 6 models that were introduced over the years.
That model does not have a volume control, but later models did… headphones with volume control are a must on this detector, since it has plenty of volume.
Looks to be in great shape for the age.
Nauti
Well-known member
That is in good nick.......they tend to be very reliable machines too so not a lot goes wrong with them.Personally i would keep the machine even though im a bit biased,still a relevant machine today even though its an old design.Can't really help you with a price as they rarely come up for sale but i think they still hold a decent price.
fwcrawford
Well-known member
I really have no idea about the value of it… hopefully some others can give you advice about that.
I had a Sovereign GT that I sold after getting the Equinox.
I had some sites that did not allow me to run high sensitivity on the Sovereign, but at one very trashy park I did very well with it finding over 100 wheat pennies, some silver coins, and IH’s.
I have gone back over that park with my Equinox and with the exception of a few wheats and one IH cent, I have not made any additional finds, which tells me the Sovereign did it’s job there.
For my style of detecting, I find the Equinox more suitable and can hunt with or longer too.
I would say give it a try and see how it works for you, then decide whether to buy it or not.
Many folks still prefer them over the other machines out now.
