METHUEN, Mass. (AP) – It’s the stuff of fantasies, and Tim Crebase found it buried under two feet of earth in his own backyard.

There, he and friend Barry Villcliff found a box stuffed with cash and gold and silver certificates, some more than a century old. The buried treasure is worth more than $100,000, according to a coin shop owner who looked at it.

“I was thinking, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,”‘ Domenic Mangano, owner of Village Coin Shop in Plaistow, N.H., told The Boston Globe.

Crebase said the find came three weeks ago when he and Villcliff were trying to dig up a small tree in Crebase’s yard. Crebase, 23, heard a thud as he tried to get at the roots and saw that he’d hit a piece of wood. Another look, and he saw the wood was part of a two-foot wide box.

He ripped the top off and found nine rusted cans that he and Villcliff, 27, of Manchester, N.H., cracked open to find about 1,800 bills, including more than 900 $1 bills, 200 $2 bills, and 300 $20 bills dated from 1899 to 1929. There were also piles of gold and silver certificates and scores of notes from local banks in Methuen, Haverhill, Amesbury, Newburyport and beyond.

They took the stash to Mangano’s shop later that day.

“I’m a pessimist; I was waiting until I got a professional review before I jumped to any conclusions,” Villcliff said. “Tim, however, was singing and dancing. He was ranting like a rabid monkey.”

Mangano said he knew the bills were genuine because fake bills look purposely aged.

None of the men knows why the money was hidden in Crebase’s yard, but they have theories. It could be robbery proceeds, profits hoarded from bootlegging during Prohibition or maybe the savings of immigrants who didn’t trust the local banks.