The licence plates that were on the limousine carrying president John F Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas have sold at auction for 100,000 US dollars.

The plates sold for well over the initial bid of 40,000 US dollars, said Noah Fleisher, from Heritage Auctions.

Mr Fleisher said they were purchased by a "high-end Kennedy collector" who requested anonymity.

Heritage said that after the 1963 assassination, the limousine was sent for upgrades to a Cincinnati company that retrofitted presidential limousines. When a new set of plates arrived, the old plates were discarded. But the company's owner retrieved them from the rubbish.

The owner, Willard Hess, kept the plates between books on his bookshelf. His daughter, who later kept them in a drawer in her Ohio kitchen, offered them for auction.

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