Back Relic Detecting, The Spanish Armady Came To The Pahdy (Updated)

[F350Platinum]

The snow is finally almost gone here, I came back from Cocoa Beach right after one snowstorm, and then it snowed again a few days later, we almost never get this much! 

Haven't had it snow this much in 10 years. 🙄

It only took 3 days to melt most of it, luckily Virginia is like that. Right now it's very muddy and some spots are still frozen and difficult to dig. I was stuck inside for a while, but finally decided to go out today to a field near my house:

I wanted to test some Manticore programs I've copied from 2 experienced detectorists, Neil Jones' "Freestyle", and Sid Perry's (Englands History) "The Beast Programme".

I've used Freestyle before and like it, it's an enhanced All Terrain General program specifically for relics, but could be put over any profile. Beast is an enhancement of All Terrain Fast, I got it put in the Manticore yesterday.

Why do I use settings others have created for the Manticore instead of trying to do it myself? 🤔

Quite honestly, it took me about 2 years to get the Deus 2 the way I want it, it's deadly on the beach and relic sites. I have every confidence in it.

I simply wanted to hit the ground running with the Manticore, I had a beach trip come up right after I bought it, so I didn't want to be fiddling around.

I have Dankowski settings for Beach, however I've overlaid the tone curve from Freestyle rather than using the stock settings, Neil Jones went to a lot of trouble to make the Manticore sound like an Explorer. 😏 The curve is really not a curve, he uses 5 Region All Tones:

I like the spread, so I used that instead of the stock tones for the Dankowski programs.

Beast is a beast alright, I alternated it with Freestyle and found I didn't like the tone curve so I'll probably modify it to Freestyle so all my programs sound off on targets the same way:

I didn't find it any deeper than Freestyle, and quite frankly it falsed a lot more. If I got a really high tone at first, it at least signaled something was there, but mostly the area I was in is machine gun iron, the high tones were more of a beating than the low.

Subsequent sweeps told me the whole story, and when I got a mostly repeatable signal I dug it. I turned Recovery Speed down to 5 to match Freestyle as well when I found I was missing stuff with RS at 6.

Today I was using the M15 coil, I wanted to get all the coverage I could get, and to be able to get a lot of area done. It's a spot I've been over with other detectors, I did a pretty tight grid search to see if I missed stuff last year when the field was all corn stalks.

I didn't do too bad, found almost as many good items as the trash: 

The Manticore like the Equinox loves forged nails, and I ended up with a few. 🙄 That's one thing I don't dig a lot of with the Deus 2.

Got 5 buttons, brass, Tombac, and the top of a 2 piece with no markings, some fancy 1600s buckle bits, a thimble, and some other bits. 

I decided to make a sweep out of my grid area, and got a very nice surprise: 

The Spanish Fleet. 🤯

I ended up with 3/4 of a 1737 2 Real coin, one fourth was broken but I got both pieces. They may not be all from the same coin but it sure looks good! You can see some knife cuts in the top left piece.

Quite a while back I found a copper not too far away that had knife cuts, so I guess it was being used to cut these.

At that point I had switched back to Freestyle. I'm sure I would have found all this with my Deus, nothing was especially deep, but it sure was fun to get some more time on the Manticore, and I'll be changing the Beast audio curve. 🙂 For sure the Manticore finds the small stuff!

🍀

[schoolofhardNox]

Nice early relic bits....and who can say NO to cut Spanish. 😍 Nice set of wheels you got there as well!!!

[F350Platinum]

On 2/23/2025 at 7:49 PM, schoolofhardNox said:

Nice early relic bits....and who can say NO to cut Spanish. 😍 Nice set of wheels you got there as well!!!

Thanks, it's about a mile to this spot. It's nice to drive out there. Kind of rough in the field though. 🤔

Always great to find nearly 300 year old stuff, it's everywhere here! 🤯

[JCR]

Very well done.

[EL NINO77]

Nice work..👍

[rvpopeye]

That looks O TAY Spanky350 !  🤩Very O TAY arrrrrr🏴‍☠️

 

[F350Platinum]

17 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

That looks O TAY Spanky350 !  🤩Very O TAY arrrrrr🏴‍☠️

 

Thanks RVP,

Ok the title is corny. 🤣 Couldn't write "The Spanish Fleet Came up the Street", there are no streets in my town.

Figures I'd drive 800+ miles to the Treasure Coast, find nothing, drive back, and get Spanish silver. 🤪 Must be some sorta payback mechanism afoot. 🤔 🏴‍☠️

[Lodge Scent]

WOW! That is way too cool F350 to find 3 slices from the same silver pie. They look like they are from the same coin to me. How far apart were they?

[F350Platinum]

28 minutes ago, Lodge Scent said:

WOW! That is way too cool F350 to find 3 slices from the same silver pie. They look like they are from the same coin to me. How far apart were they?

The first was in my grid area. When it was about time to quit I found I had some extra time, and made a sweep out into the field. 

The next three pieces came out in a small spot, probably about 10x10', but none together, as would be expected from 288 years of farming, if the coin was acquired, cut, and lost in 1737 😅

Each piece was a few feet apart, I think in a line consistent with the direction the field is cultivated. I doubt the first piece I found was part of this same coin, it just matched up as would be expected, they cut the coins on the Spanish cross.

Last year or earlier I found a large copper half not too far from the second spot that had knife cuts, and a whole half Real coin.

Go to the first page.

I suspect this may be the cutting board!