Is this a Genuine Cuban Cigar?
How many times has this question been asked?
Unfortunately, forums are full of well-intentioned advice, which (regrettably) is often wrong and is
invariably incomplete, and therefore misleading.
Let’s be clear: There is no single or simple way to prove a cigar is genuine.
Luckily there are ways to prove that a cigar is or may be a fake. Some are definitive and some are
indicative. Enough negative indications should be sufficient to raise reasonable doubts.
One needs to understand what a fake cigar is, which cigars are faked, who fakes cigars,
and how fake cigars are sold.
In this context, the term “cigar” includes the packaging.
1 - General Considerations
What is a Fake?
A fake is anything made to appear other than it actually is, and is intended to be passed off fraudulently
or deceptively as genuine.
There are good fakes and there are bad fakes. Fakes are produced by large professional groups, individuals,
and everyone in between.
Cigars that may be genuine but mistaken as fakes are: special factory productions, factory trials,
pre-production cigars, previously unrecorded cigars or releases, etc.
The Official Distribution Chain
Understanding how the official distribution system works gives an insight to how Black Market cigars can
enter the distribution chain.
Habanos SA grants single licences on a region-by-region basis. Regional Licence Holders have their
own local distribution offices. These local distribution offices sell to sub-distributors and major retailers.
Sub-distributors may have retail sales and/or wholesale to smaller the retailers (tobacconists, bars, clubs,
liquor outlets, etc.).
Retailers can purchase from distributors, sub-distributors, parallel importers, parallel import themselves,
or use a combination of all sources.
Parallel Market Suppliers
Parallel suppliers are either legitimate (but unauthorised) suppliers selling outside their region, or they may be
professionally Black Marketeers posing as a parallel supplier.
Sub-distributors sell product into the grey market to increase their own volume turnover, since the more stock they sell,
the better discount they can get from their distributor. Transactions, communications, and payment are normally done through third-party companies so that nothing can be
traced directly back to the distributor/sub-distributor from where the cigars originated.
Many retailers purchase from both their authorised distributor and parallel supply sources.
There is nothing wrong with parallel importing (other than being unauthorised), but it does
depend on the knowledge and scruples of both the parties involved. Many retailers that parallel import are
100% reliable; some regrettably are not.
For retailers, purchasing from a parallel supplier is generally cheaper, however there are two downsides:
the possibility of fakes and there are no wholesale-level returns, and therefore no quality control.
The Black Market
The Black Market is basically professional criminal operations, generally originating from Central America,
Cuba and Asia. These operations involve massive quantities of fake cigars.
They either sell into the grey market (passing themselves off as legitimate parallel suppliers) or they sell
direct to the final point-of-sale sellers....stores, bars, clubs, street touts, cruise lines, vacation
destinations, etc.
The Grey Market
The Grey Market is the retail level sellers who have purchased stock from Parallel Market Suppliers.
Some world renowned retailers have been caught selling fakes (notably Limited Editions). When pressed they
admitted that they purchased the cigars outside of the licensed distribution channel.
Habanos SA is currently trying to eliminate the grey market. The introduction of the new warranty seal
(c2010) is one measure employed to enforce this. Some Grey Market venders remove this barcode so that the
product cannot be traced back to the distributor selling outside his region; however since circa mid-2012
the serial number is also micro-printed into the body of the seal.
With this barcode, it is possible to utilise the Habanos SA website to verify the authenticity of the
product.
Buyers should always use caution with buying from an unknown grey market dealer, however the Grey Market in
itself is not an indication of fakes.
What Cuban Cigars are Faked?
All cigars can and are being faked and can be categorised as follows:
· Fake cigars in fake packaging (total fakes)
· Fake cigars in genuine packaging (replacement fakes)
· Genuine cigars with fake bands in genuine or fake packaging (upgrade fakes)
Fake Cigars can be non-Cuban cigars or cheap local Cuban cigars (handmade but normally with short-filler
tobacco scraps). They may or may not be to the correct size, and are sometimes sold with a totally
bogus cigar or release name. Fake or upgraded cigars can also be genuine Cuban cigars with stolen or
fake bands purporting to be an exclusive valuable cigar.
Fake Packaging includes genuine boxes (either stolen in large numbers or a reused genuine box), counterfeits
of genuine boxes, or totally bogus boxes (e.g. the “classic” glass top boxed Cohiba).
Bands are either stolen genuine or forged/fake bands (commercially available on the web), or to a lesser extent, reused genuine bands.
For example, consider a standard production Montecristo No.4. Replace the standard band with a forged
“Compay” band and it becomes the 2002 Compay 95 Aniversario cigar. Alternatively add a supplementary
“Reserva” band and it becomes a 2007 Reserva cigar. Put these cigars into a "reused" genuine box of
the correct type and presto.......apparent genuine cigars.
Who Fakes Cigars
Cigars are faked by everyone......from full-time high volume Black Market/criminal organisations; to small
time backstreet rollers; down to one-off individuals. Be aware, there are fake cigars everywhere.
Where are Fake Cigars sold
Black market cigars are either knowingly or inadvertently sold by the Grey Market retailer system, or
directly by unscrupulous end-user sellers. This usually involves large volumes.
Smaller volumes tend to be the “home” rollers, and one-off sales tend to be replacement or upgrading scams.
Other sources are the unknowing travellers who
bring back a few boxes from overseas to “defray their expenses”.
At retail level cigars are sold:
· Online (with or without a B & M store)
· Duty Free & Travel Retail outlets
· Local B & M store
· Pubs, Clubs, Cigar Kiosks, etc.
· Auction sites (Craigslist & eBay).
Before buying consider the following questions:
Retailers
Who are you buying from and what is their reputation?
Do they provide full contact details (physical address and phone contact)?
Do they guarantee both product and delivery?
Do they specialise in Cuban cigars?
Do they sell Grey Market product?
Are the prices in line with market prices or are they just too cheap?
Is there range of discontinued or special release stock too extensive or beyond general market quantities?
Do they send checked open boxes or sealed unchecked boxes?
Individuals
Who are the sellers....returning travellers, reformed smokers, collectors, investors etc.?
Why are they selling?
What is the source of the cigars?
How have the cigars been kept?
Do they accept returns?
Cigar Condition
Purchasing cigars in poor condition can be just as disappointing as purchasing
fakes.
There are always concerns when buying aged or vintage cigars sight-unseen from retailers, and buying any
cigars from unknowledgeable individuals. Cigars stored for long periods of time at unregulated
temperature and humidity conditions are likely to be unsmokable. Storage conditions are important.
2 - Specific Considerations
Before even beginning to investigate the actual cigar and packaging, it is essential that some
preliminary information is collected and examined.
Without this basic information, many of the individual tests cannot be made. Very few of these tests
are definitive, most are only indicative, and obviously many of these tests cannot be applied to cigars
purchased as singles.
Again....to be totally clear:
If a cigar passes a test.....that does not prove it is genuine.
If a cigar fails a definitive test......that is normally sufficient to prove it is a fake.
If a cigar fails a indicative test......that does not prove it is a fake, but enough "fails" should
raise a reasonable doubt as to the authenticity of the cigars.
Finally, to further complicate things......some tests may give a false negative.
2.1 - Preliminary Data
The Cigar Name
Check that the named cigar actually exists. You would be amazed how many fake cigars have totally
bogus cigar or release names. Common examples are Limited Editions that don’t exist for the year
indicated.
This should be a definitive test for post-1985 cigars. In the post-1962 period,
hundreds of discontinued cigars were unrecorded.
Dating the Cigar
The date of a cigar is the most important aspect to enable checking for fakes.
Methods of dating of a cigar fall into three main time periods. These major and minor changes assist either in dating a box or ensuring that the cigars, bands, and
packaging is appropriate for the date of time periods known for the cigar in question.
1889 to 1962
Since 1889 the Union Seal (the forerunner of the Warranty seal) is applied to Cuban cigar
packaging. The design (and the name) of this seal changed in 1898, 1902, 1912, 1931, and finally in 1961
when nationalising of the cigar industry was taking place. There are no box dates or codes during this period.
1962 to 1985
During this period only a single warranty seal was used. The "Hecho en Cuba" Country of Manufacture
stamp underwent several minor variations in the late-1960s, 1974, 1978, 1980, and finally in c1982/3. There
are no box dates or codes applied during this period.
1985 to the present
In 1985 box date codes were introduced.
During this period the previous warranty seal continued to be used until 1999, at which time the red serial
number warranty seal was introduced. The current bar-coded seal was introduced
c2010 and there was a transition period where the new seal was affixed over the old seal. There is also a Producer's name stamped onto boxes.
Between 1985 and 1994 this was a "Cubatabaco" stamp that incorporated a stylised tobacco leaf logo. In 1994
the current "Habanos s.a." stamp was introduced.
The Cigar Status
Determine if the cigar is a current Standard or a discontinued Standard Production cigar,
or a Special Release cigar.
Check that the box date and the cigar status agree.
A 2003 Special Release or a Standard
Production cigar discontinued in 2003 should not have a 2007 date stamp, however special release and discontinued dates do have
some flexibility. Occasionally cigars are produced in the last few months of the year prior to
release, and (more often) special release are up to a year late.
The Packaging Status
Check that the packaging type and size is both valid for the cigar name and for the production date.
Sometimes cigars are offered in packaging types and count numbers that never or no longer exist.
Again, here as in every other test, a negative indication may be false. Not all packaging is known, and sometime
Vendors repackage standard
production cigars. An example is H & F (the UK distributor), who repackage the Quintero Panetelas (2)
produced in B25 (dress boxes of 25 cigars) and place them in tubes and sell them as Panetelas Tubulars in
packs of 10. The giveaway here was that these Tubulars show obvious signs of box-pressing.
2.2 - Cigars
Uniformity
Even before removing the cigar from a dress box, the uniformity of the band placement on the cigars should
be checked, as well as checking the colour uniformity and shade graduation of the top layer.
Normally cigars of the same shade are allocated to a single box, but when there is a slight difference, the
shades are arranged to run from darker to lighter, from left to right across the box. Bands should all
line up.
Cigar Shape
Cigars, particularly older cigars, have slightly different head shapes. Check that the shape of the
head of the cigar is correct. For example: some heads are conical and some heads have pigtails.
Cigars in dress boxes (except tubos and cedar sheet wrapped cigars) are "boxed-pressed" and show (to a
variable extent) squared-off sides; so check for box-pressed cigars turning-up in cabinets
and tubes, etc.
Cigar Size
Both the length and diameter (gauge) should be checked using a ring gauge. This is a very simple test
that is often overlooked.
Seasoned cigars shrink, so the actual length is normally 2mm to 3mm shorter than the nominal length. The
diameter can be plus or minus one ring size.
Cigar Bands
The cigar bands need to be checked to ensure that they are the correct type based on the package date. They also need
to be checked that they match genuine band images. The bands need to be correctly applied
(overlapped), be free of glue marks, and uniformly placed. Cigars in cabinets did not have bands pre-c2006.
Cellophane Sleeves
Cuban cigars have not been produced with cellophane sleeves since 1992. The only exceptions are the
small machine-made Puritos produced by ICT.
Cigar Wrapper
The cigar wrapper (outer tobacco leaf) should be assessed for reasonable quality. Check for quality, condition,
and consistency. Beware of fake wrappers such as “barber poles” or similar.
Cigar Cap
Cuban cigars are rolled with what is called a triple-cap construction to the head of the cigar. A must have
for Parejos (straight) cigars.
Tobacco Type
Special releases and almost all current production cigars are hand-rolled using long-filler (whole leaf)
tobacco, however there are a number of current production cigars that were previously machine-made using
short-filler (chopped) tobacco.
Where warranted, destructive testing by cutting 2 or 3 cm off the foot can be used to check for short-filler tobacco.
Test Smoking a Cigar
This is not a valid test for most people. Handmade cigars by their very nature are variable.
Detecting a non-Cuban cigar should be easy for most Cuban Cigar smokers.
Some smokers may be able to detect or confirm a particular cigar or brand, but very few could detect an
upgraded fake (i.e. a standard production Montecristo No.4 with a forged “Compay” band posing as the 2002
Compay 95 Aniversario cigar).
2.3 - Packaging
Check that the various stamps and stickers are correctly applied and appropriate to the box date.
Note that the stickers must actually be applied.....they are never placed loose in the box.
Firstly checked that the appropriate sticker is applied for the box date.
Secondly check that the sticker is not faked.
Exception to the Rules
For the standard dress box, all the appropriate stickers and stamps are on the outside of the box.
Some Special Releases in upmarket varnished boite-nature boxes come in a plain or decorative protective
cardboard outer. Some of the stickers and stamps are placed on this outer packaging (for example, see
the
Cohiba 1966 LE2011).
Some boxes (such as several of the recent 898B10) have the factory and date codes inside the lid.
Internal Storage Notice
This is the note regarding recommended storage conditions, written in four languages (Spanish, English,
French, and German). There are several variations of these notices. Check that the internal notice
used is appropriate for the box date.
Internal Special Release Notices
Many special releases have a unique internal notice providing pertinent details regarding the release.
Producers Name Stamp
Between 1985 and 1994 "Cubatobacco" was the authority responsible for the production of Cuban cigars. From
1994 to present "Habanos S.A." is the responsible authority.
Country of Manufacture Stamp
There are a number of variations to this box stamp, applied from the Pre-Revolution period to the present.
They should agree with box dates and all other items.
DOP Sticker
This is the Denominacion de Origen Protegida sticker, normally applied diagonally to the top right-hand
corner of cigar boxes. There are several versions of this sticker, which should agree with the box date.
Limited & Regional Edition Supplementary Sticker
These are supplementary stickers applied diagonally and below the DOP sticker.
Warranty Seals
Union & Warranty seals have been applied to Cuban cigar boxes from 1889 to the present. Check that the
correct warranty seal is used in relation to the box date.
The current seal has a bar code that can be checked for authenticity on the Habanos SA website. The
previous seal had a red serial number that can be used to ascertain the approximate release date.
In addition all seals need to be corrected located on the box and the fold of the seal should be through the
centre of the coat of arms.
Logo and Duty Paid Stickers
Many regional distributors have logo stickers that they apply as an assurance of authenticity.
Some, such as H&F UK use a numbered "EMS" sticker that changes colour annually; and a different
sticker for packages destined for Travel Retail and H&F's official export markets. These stickers double as
duty paid stickers. In Germany, two separate stickers are applied.
Government Health Warning Stickers
These days, various pictorial or text stickers are plastered over cigar boxes; and this may provide another
way to help in assessing the status of recent packaging.
Summary
Now....a final piece of advice:
Buying your Cuban cigars from a known reputable source is the best possible way to avoid fakes.
If you buy elsewhere......use this information as a guide.
And if you are unhappy with a purchase....talk to the seller and explain your specific concerns.
|