SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD - 1967 - Swan Island - CUBA LIBRE - Courier Service cover to Chicago, USA
A 1967 cover mailed from Swan Island to Chicago via the CUBA LIBRE - Swan Island, Isle of Palms, Key West, San Juan Courier Service. Franked with a US $ 2.50 [Two Dollors (misspelled) Fifty Cents] label to pay for the postage to Jamaica, where official Jamaican stamps were affixed. Since the island had a landing strip, an airmail envelope was used and the Jamaican Post Offices receiving these are always inland, it is probably a safe bet to say these were transported to Jamaica by plane. The Jamaican stamps were cancelled with two strikes of a STRATHBOGIE - JAMAICA 1967 cds. Cleanly opened at bottom. Swan Island is a very tiny island in the western Caribbean, off the coast of Honduras, where, starting as early as May 1960, a medium-wave, 50KW radio station was built to broadcast to Cuba. As far as I know, the island was previously uninhabited and a landing strip had to be constructed to bring in construction materials, the radio station equipment, etc. (Looking in Goggle Earth, the landing strip that is almost the length of the entire island, can still be seen but it seems to be in a state of disrepair. I remember listening to the Station using my 1950's vintage Hallicrafter short wave radio but the Castro government was successful, most of the time in jamming the signal to prevent Cubans from listening. NOT A CUBA PHILATELIC ITEM IN THE STRICT SENSE OF THE WORD BUT OF GREAT HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE TO US CUBANS OR ANYONE INTERESTED IN CUBAN HISTORY. A VERY RARE ITEM OF WHICH WE HAVE SEEN ONLY THREE IN MANY YEARS.