When they scanned it they found coins, newspapers and a silver plate which had laid untouched since 1795, when the box was sealed in a ceremony attended by Samuel Adams, a signatory of the declaration of independence. Also present at the ceremony was Paul Revere, a silversmith, whose midnight right to Lexington in Kentucky warned Adams and John Hancock of the approach of British troops, and marked the start of the revolutionary war, which ran from 1775-1783.