Help With a CC Identification

[wantacigar]

Here's what happened:
I was at work and was near a town park (I work for town) where people eat lunch in park in nice weather and in their cars in bad weather. Today it was cold. I stopped to use the mens room and saw a guy smoking a really nice cigar in his car. I started talking to him and he had a box of Montecristo Habana on seat next to him. Halfway through conversation he handed me one and said "Merry Christmas". I was dumbfounded. He said he knew they were real with a lot of certainty. Well here's pics



Sorry about the bad pics

 

[pbibby]

Probably going to need better pictures in order to even begin to say if they are real or not.

 

[wantacigar]

Better pictures

 

[CigarGavin]

It looks like the newer monte labels (I think lol bad pic) But im not sure if they started putting them on sticks other than the Double Edmundo and Petite No. 4; but I think It would be a good sign. Anyway to take better pics?

Edit: you put them up as I was typing lol

 

[pbibby]

Hmm. New bands on the Monte? I knew they were going to start, but I wasn't sure when. Maybe a vet can chime in. The cigar isn't horrible looking, but unfortunately you won't know until you smoke it. Provenance is everything with CCs and unfortunately because you got it from some guys, you will probably never really know..... IMO

 

[AlohaStyle]

If that was a genuine cuban cigar, as others have said, that's a brand new band. The only Montecristos that have come out with the new band are the Double Edmundo (which your cigar is not) and the Petit No. 2. The Petit No. 2 is 4.7" long... the cigar you have looks like a traditional #2 length.

I personally do not know of anybody getting Montecristo cigars other than the 2 listed above with the new band. Either your guy has access to brand new Monte's direct from Cuba, or those are fake... you make the call.

Edit: I also have not heard from anyone who has recently been to Cuba that they have seen the new bands on the regular Montecristo cigars.

 

[JDog]

Montecristo also introduced this band for the Petit No.2 which is 102mm or 4.7" x 52 ring gauge. Obviously it's a smaller version of the classic No.2 which, I believe, still will have the "older" band.

 

[JDog]

Aloha answered this quicker than me... too busy looking up the size of the new Petit No. 2. A friend was trying to locate these but they aren't available yet that he was aware of... which is why I knew. I don't smoke a lot of this marca personally.

 

[Clint]

When in doubt, here is the best resource available.... http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com

Aloha is one of our resident experts, though. Even if it is a new label (which seems doubtful based on the above posts) it looks awfully slick, as if made on a printer (?)

 

[Nacho Daddy]

Aloha answered this quicker than me... too busy looking up the size of the new Petit No. 2. A friend was trying to locate these but they aren't available yet that he was aware of... which is why I knew. I don't smoke a lot of this marca personally.

Available,just stupid expensive.Have seen two vendors with these.

No Monte #2 have been given the new bands,so none are available. I think the new band only has gold on the fleur-des-lis............FAKE.......

 

[Jfire]

I don't know shit about the newer Cuban bands except I don't really like them. The thing that sticks out to me is the head of the cigar is off. Ie incorrectly rolled as far as the shape.

 

[wantacigar]

Update: gold is embossed

 

[thejavaman]

Is it me, or are monte bands in drastic need of a security makeover? Seems like if I was making fakes, that is the brand I would choose simply because the bands would be the easiest to fake. I agree with Ryan & the others on the band being too dark too. Sorry bro.

 

[CigarGavin]

Is it me, or are monte bands in drastic need of a security makeover? Seems like if I was making fakes, that is the brand I would choose simply because the bands would be the easiest to fake. I agree with Ryan & the others on the band being too dark too. Sorry bro.

Why do you think the monte 2 is the most faked cigar? That and cohibas

 

[Stillinger]

Is it me, or are monte bands in drastic need of a security makeover? Seems like if I was making fakes, that is the brand I would choose simply because the bands would be the easiest to fake. I agree with Ryan & the others on the band being too dark too. Sorry bro.

Why do you think the monte 2 is the most faked cigar? That and cohibas

Cost, name recognition and then ease of reproduction. In that order I imagine

 

[Jfire]

A decent example of a #2 with a more round, even bulbous head. Not "pencil shaped or thin tipped"

 

[Skitalets]

Is it me, or are monte bands in drastic need of a security makeover? Seems like if I was making fakes, that is the brand I would choose simply because the bands would be the easiest to fake. I agree with Ryan & the others on the band being too dark too. Sorry bro.

I am a curmudgeon on this issue, but I think it's a fool's errand for HSA to do all this anti-counterfeiting stuff. Dumb people are still going to buy the bad fakes (see: "Cohibas, glass top") and smart people are going to get snookered by convincing fakes produced by people who invest in copying whatever HSA does, having been given a false sense of security by the anti-counterfeiting measures. We've seen this with Behike. And IMHO the new super-anti-counterfeit bands look uglier than the classic ones.

Now you kids get off my lawn.

 

[thejavaman]

Good points, Chris.

 

[fireman mike]

Definite fake

 

[wantacigar]

Oh well. It's not a shitty fake so I'll smoke it anyway. I have a Cohiba fake in a glass tube that I will disect and post pics. Make sure they didn't use brown paper bags as a binder. LOL That's what is smells like.