Scott-
The EL band has slight variations covering it's shimmering gold color, year shown (or not shown) and embossed text. I'm not exactly sure if there was a pattern for what cigars have what types of bands but I wouldn't be surprised if they were just made differently at different times with no rhyme or reason to the madness.
The differences that I know for sure about are:
2000 release has no year
2000 gold color is 'flatter' or has less shimmer then other releases