A half-smoked cigar enjoyed by Britain's war-time prime minister Sir Winston Churchill was sold at an auction for about $670.

According to auctioneers Outhwaite and Litherland, Churchill had been puffing on the cigar when he arrived for a meeting in Blackpool, north-west England, on October 14, 1950, when he was leader of the Conservative Party.

Churchill stubbed out the cigar and handed it to a special constable standing next to him after being told that he could not smoke in the ballroom.

The policeman kept the cigar as a souvenir and it remained in his family until relatives decided to auction it off.

Last year, a cigar case that was said to have belonged to Churchill was sold for about $16,000.

The Romeo y Julieta cigar company in Cuba even named one of their cigars in 1947 after Churchill because he had his first cigar there in 1895.