Treasure hunt coins sell for £35k

One of the coins sold for a record-breaking £12,075

A hoard of ancient coins discovered by a man with a metal detector in a Kent field have sold for more than £35,000.

The 41 Celtic gold coins, many in pristine condition and dating back to the 1st Century, fetched three times the expected price at auction.

They were found over a three-year period near Westerham, but the exact location is being kept secret.

The hoard comprised three staters and 38 quarter staters, mostly depicting a horse surrounded by motifs.

Morton and Eden auction house in London said one of the treasures broke records for a Celtic coin found in the UK.

'Brass button'

The record-breaking gold stater which bears the name of Diras, an "obscure tribal ruler" thought to be from north of the Thames, sold to a New York dealer for £12,075, after being estimated at between £3,000 and £4,000.

Their designs were copied from earlier Greek coins and their usage came to an end when Claudius invaded Britain in 43 AD.

The seller, who does not want to be identified, said he had "found nothing of real interest" before discovering the coins.

"I was searching one of the fields when the landowner drove past and invited me to search a field nearby.

"I then found what I thought at first was a small brass button which I popped into my finds bag.

"It was in the following years that I found the Diras stater which was a shock, as up to that point, I had only been finding quarters."