Teen finds buried treasure in Kingston

• Tweet

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- A Jamaican teenager said he uncovered buried treasure dating back to the 1860s while working to clear a vacant lot in Kingston.

Michael Taylor, 19, was using a sledge hammer to demolish a concrete column in the lot Wednesday discover what appeared to be a vault, he told The Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica.

Taylor called over fellow workers who helped him open the vault. Inside it, they found a vial containing silver coins, a medallion and a parchment paper.

"We tried to take up the paper but it just crumble. We saw seven coins and the pendant and we say this is really something major," Taylor said.

The coins date back to as early as 1860 and as late as 1902, the newspaper said. The medallion features a man holding a Bible and the words "Ignace de Loyola/AD Majorem dei Gloriam."

"It is amazing to know that we find something like this, 'cause none of us never born yet when whoever bury this treasure. Is like part of history. Is like it telling us something of what happened in the past," Taylor said.