A hoard of Celtic gold coins found in a Kent field has sold for record prices at auction.

They raised a total of £35,000 - three times the expected price - while one set an auction record for a UK Celtic coin.

The haul, dug up by a metal detector in a field near Westerham, was auctioned by specialist coins auctioneers Morton & Eden in London on Wednesday.

The record-breaker was a gold stater which bears the name of an obscure ruler called Diras, thought to be from north of the Thames in an area governed by the Trinovantes and Catuvelauni tribes.

Only one other example is recorded, now in the British Museum. It sold to a New York dealer for £12,075, setting a new world auction record for a UK Celtic coin.

The coins were found by a metal detector over a three-year period between 2003 and 2006.

Coin factfile