Treasure Hunter with Magical Machine Finds King John's Treasure - He Says

These Treasure hunters in the UK are a funny lot. Metal detectorist Raymond Kosschuk has found the treasure famously lost by King John in 1216 on a farm in a Lincolnshire village, but is keeping the exact location secret for now (Michael Moran Long-lost English Crown Jewels' found by metal detectorist on Lincolnshire farm Daily Star 18 Sep 2021). King John lost the treasure during an ill fated crossing of The Wash - an estuary that divides Lincolnshire and Norfolk on October 12, 1216. Of course loony loopy treasure hunters have been "almost finding" this treasure for years, every few months it seems. Anyway:

" Raymond Kosschuk, 63, is "100% certain" the 800-year-old artefacts he has uncovered at an undisclosed site belonged to the former King of England. The mechanical engineer has spent the last 12 months conducting tests at the location in Sutton Bridge, Lincs., in a bid to track down the elusive hoard. Raymond is now convinced he has struck gold after his equipment picked up "overwhelming evidence" of the treasure. [...] Raymond and the farmer are hoping to start digging out their findings in the coming weeks before submitting them to archeologists (sic) and Lincolnshire's Finds Officer.

I think it would be better if the archaeologists excavated it properly, we do not have that many 12th century wagons preserved. The story gets loopier, after saying he was on the site on 7th September, we learn that metal detecting produced "a wealth of" metal artefacts in the field:

Using equipment he has designed to pick up anomalies in the readings of magnetic fields, Raymond has received strong signals for high value items. [...] Raymond, of Keighley of West Yorks., said: "I am 100% 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 an is 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." Raymond has also had positive tests for gold [...] Finding readings for horse shoes in sets of four, Raymond believes that there 'is no question' that his finds are compelling evidence that this is the treasure. He said: "Those horse shoes are completely damning evidence - there is no question"The field is littered with this kind of find. "I have never seen anything like the field itself. It is phenomenal the amount of readings it is giving off there.

Hmmm. Something tells me that the writer here is not quite clear in his head what this equipment Mr Kosschuk has designed does 'pick up anomalies in the readings of magnetic fields" mans what? This is some kind of a magnetometer? But how is it calibrated to "receive strong signals for high value items"? What does it mean "test positive for emeralds, sapphires and rubies​"? Items like rubies and saphire (red and blue corundum) and emerald (a form of beryl)? What magnetic properties do they have? How can they be teledetected so specifically at all? And "horseshoes in sets of four? I do not believe in this magical black box. As for the finds made by metal detecting... there is this thing called "stratigraphy" that gets in the way of fantasy. The baggage train got not only mired, but sank into the silts of the Welstream estuary (the mouth of - among others - the River Nene). It sank down into it, beyond reach. The estuary silted up (so deposits formed above, and sealing, those containing the lost bits of the baggage train). Then the land was reclaimed and a soil layer formed on top of the marine silts of teh estuary and the finds are in the ploughsoil formed from that later layer. All the finds that Mr Kosschuk has made come from layers much later than the second decade of the 13th century.