United States of America, Territorial, Swan Island, Twenty-Five Cents, 1 June 1867, no. 128, To Wm. E. Watson, Treasurer, New York, signed by W.H. Whitfield, 139 x 76mm (Pick –). Very fine, extremely rare £600-800

Provenance: Henry Christensen Auction 58, 5 December 1975, lot 1253; E. Roehrs Collection.

Swan Islands, Greater Swan and Lesser Swan, originally known as Santanilla but renamed after the pirate Captain Swan, lie 98 miles off the coast of Honduras. In the 1840s an American company began exporting guano-based fertilizer back to the United States and in 1856 the US claimed the islands. Their status remained in dispute for over a century until a treaty was passed in 1972 recognising the sovereignty of Honduras. The US still maintains a weather station there