Metal detectorist claims he’s uncovered King John's 800-year-old lost treasure

A metal detectorist claims he has unearthed the 800-year-old long lost treasure of King John on a farm in a Lincolnshire village.

Raymond Kosschuk, 63, believes the medieval artefacts he found at an undisclosed site belonged to the former King of England.

The mechanical engineer has spent the last 12 months conducting tests at the Sutton Bridge location to track down the illusive hoard.

Kosschuk, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, is now convinced he has struck gold after his equipment apparently picked up "overwhelming evidence" of the treasure.

He has already recovered a wealth of artefacts during a quick sweep with a metal detector, including hammered blots, nails, an eyelet and even a metal buckle.

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King John, who signed the Magna Carta a year before his death in 1216, lost the treasure during an ill-fated crossing of The Wash – an estuary that divides Lincolnshire and Norfolk on 12 October, 1216.

Dying only a week later at Newark Castle, Nottinghamshire, from dysentery – or according to some historians by drinking poisoned ale - the hoard has been undiscovered ever since.

After gaining access to the site on 7 September, Kosschuk believes he has solved the mystery of the controversial monarch's lost treasure.

Using equipment he has designed to pick up anomalies in the readings of magnetic fields, he has received strong signals for high-value items.

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Kosschuk hopes to start digging out his findings in the coming weeks before submitting them to archaeologists and Lincolnshire’s Finds Officer to verify.

He said: “I am 100 per cent certain that this it. This is the real thing.

“When I gained access, I isolated an area of high-value targets and it tested positive for elements of gold, silver, emeralds, sapphires and rubies.

“The biggest attraction of this area I detected is an accumulation of silver.

"This tells me there is between 60lb-120lb of silver but it could be more. I believe this was the cash box that King John was carrying.”

Kosschuk has also had positive tests for gold and hopes to have found the Royal Regalia from the 13th century which was lost when the treasure disappeared.