Features Cuban cigar boxes

What are actually the Features Cuban cigar boxes? At some point you ask yourself this question. And: how to recognize counterfeits? If you want to know if you have original Cuban cigars, you can find here our support >

Today we deal together with the analysis of the box and its labels, stamps and seals. In my other post, I described characteristics of forgeries that you can see the cigar. Features of Cuban cigar boxes are an important and interesting topic.

The external features may differ depending on the country and may include additional stickers. However, the stickers, brand stamps and seal are excluded.

Features Cuban cigar boxes

Point 1: Habanos seal. It is used since 1994 and has been changed and adjusted several times so far. The seal is placed on the top right and over both edges of the corner (see also the second photo). This seal must never be in the box.

Point 2: The guarantee seal. Did you know that it was introduced back in 1889, it has been changed and adjusted several times since then. I will talk about it in more detail below. Also, this seal must never be in the box or in any other place (as of January 2015).

Features of Cuban cigar boxes are on the one hand easy to discover, and on the other hand a little tricky.

The box viewed from below. Always look for the characteristics of Cuban cigar boxes

Item 1) The importer's sticker. This is not always present depending on the country where you buy the cigars. If it is a parallel import, this sticker is missing.

Point 2) The branding (! NO stamps !). Habanos S.A (from 1994), Hecho en Cuba (from 1960), Totalmento a mano (from 1989).

Point 3) The stamps. Factory code, month and year when the cigars were packed in the box (Boxing Date). From 1985 to 1999, the Boxing Date was encrypted. From 2000 it is unencrypted (as of January 2015).

The month designations are:

• ENE = January
• FEB = February
• MAR = March
• ABR = April
• MAY = May
• JUN = June
• JUL = July
• AGO = August
• SEP = September
• OCT = October
• NOV = November
• DIC = December

The guarantee seal: an indication of characteristics of Cuban cigar boxes

Introduced in 1889. That so far it has been changed and adapted several times. Features Cuban cigar boxes change over the years.

Item 1) The barcode and the hologram.Introduced in the course of 2009. The bar code and the hologram have changed the appearance several times until today. You can see this code on the website of Habanos S.A. verify online. Around the end of 2011, a serial number was also printed on the seal in different places in microprint.

Attention! According to Thomas Portmann this verification is not always 100% true. Cubans do not list their products very carefully. Therefore, you may have an original product, but the barcode on its website is not verified.

In such a case, please proceed as follows:

1. Be sure that your product was purchased from an authorized dealer.
2. Contact and ask him to check your product for authenticity. Your dealer will arrange this for you with the official importer.
3. Exceptions: Parallel importers, remove this barcode so that the product cannot be traced. Currently (year 2015) this is legal in Switzerland.

The features

Photo below, item 1) This seal was in circulation from 1999 to 2009. There was no hologram yet. The red writing is the serial number. It consists of two letters and six digits. The letter "I" stands for the year 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The second letter seems rather randomly chosen.

Notice: According to different sources, this seal was in circulation from 1999 to about 2011 (cubancigarwebsite.com). According to the book "The world of Habanos"By the way: The link leads to amazon. If you buy the book, I get a modest advertising allowance, thank you very much 🙂 Here I have this book presented, in all details

Features Cuban cigar boxes, another feature:

Photo below: This round hologram seal is a peculiarity that I did not know until January 2016. It is on a box of Bolivar Gold Medal from 2006 (Edition La Casa De Habana). Also my competent Cigars.Zone friends Thomas Portmann (portmanntabak.ch) and Christoph. A. Puszkar (5th Avenue) did not know it. So I questioned Andreas Regvart (Cigars Rarities from Vienna, a post on Zigarren.Zone), where I had bought the Bolivar Gold Medal.

This is the first attempt by the Cubans to introduce a tamper-proof guarantee seal. It was introduced in the Arab Emirates in 2006. Andreas had bought several of these boxes there, all from the same batch, but not all of them had this round seal. As we know, later the hologram was adopted on the oblong seal and the round seal disappeared again.

Photo below, item 1: Factory and Boxing Date stamps. And when is the BD (Boxing Date), so the year in which the cigars were packed? The stamp on the back says FEB 09, so February 2009. I can not assign the factory code OPM.

Enclosed note

If you open the cigar box, it must be included. Since when, I do not know. In 2005 and 2007 adjustments were made (source cubancigarwebsite.com).

I do not know from which box and from which year this came. The cigars have long been tasted

Example from 2013, from a box of Hoyo de Monterrey Le Hoyo des Dieux:

In addition, the importer can enclose proof of quality. In Switzerland it is bilingual (German and French) from Intertabak. In Germany, the importer 5th Avenue does it.

Features Cuban cigar boxes:

Counterfeits

Cohiba Esplendidos are very popular counterfeit. Here is a cool fake. A humidor with fake Cohiba Esplendidos was sold to an ignorant tourist.

This is a box of Cohiba Esplendidos. The warranty seal is incorrectly affixed (the hologram should be on the lid and not on the back of the box). The barcode of this box belongs to Montecristo Churchill according to verification on Habanos website. And: date stamp with factory code is missing on the bottom of the box.

Web tip

My contribution with cut cigars and the analysis of Cohiba Anillas

That was my post with the analysis of the box and its labels, stamps and seals. In my other post I described characteristics of forgeries that are you can see the cigar. Features of Cuban cigar boxes are an important and interesting topic. Thank you for your attention.