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BOTL UPCOMING MAINTENANCE
Hi Everyone, as mentioned in my introduction post, BOTL needs quite a bit of updating, patching and whatever else I might come across. Over the next few weekends BOTL may be unreachable on occasion as I do migrations or updates, etc. Just be patient - we'll be back! I'll generally try to keep these maintenances until later in the evenings.
Opinions on authenticity please
- Thread starter Buddy pal
- Start date
Where did you procure them from?
trust yo source. and go over to intro and say whatup
Rupe
Suburban robot that monitors reality -BOM Feb.'13
I have attached a pic of a real one for reference.
The only thing that I would question with the bands is that the color and the wavy designs on the sides are slightly different (not as "sharp"). This just may be angle of the photos or something with the light though. In my oinion the bands look really good. If they are faked it is a really good fake.
The thing that I question more is the way that the caps look. Something doesn't look quite right with the telltale triple cap and the shape of the head to me. Once again this may just be due to the angle ot the lighting but they look off to me. Since I am by no means an expert, this is just my best guess.
The only thing that I would question with the bands is that the color and the wavy designs on the sides are slightly different (not as "sharp"). This just may be angle of the photos or something with the light though. In my oinion the bands look really good. If they are faked it is a really good fake.
The thing that I question more is the way that the caps look. Something doesn't look quite right with the telltale triple cap and the shape of the head to me. Once again this may just be due to the angle ot the lighting but they look off to me. Since I am by no means an expert, this is just my best guess.
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Zedman05
Fiend4theLeaf
I agree with above post. Bands, hopefully it's just the pic, look very "purplish". Could be the light. The way they are capped is rather off-putting, with the lack of quality there as well.
To be on the lighter side of things though; I have had a box of fake Monte 2's that I knew were not real, but after a couple years in the humi they became pretty good cigars. I quarantined them to make sure I wouldn't get beetles and/or mold as I stored them, but nothing came of it and now that I have only 2 left from that 09 box, I am enjoying them. You never really know what you are getting when you get "fake" Cubans.
Just keep positive, but cautious.
To be on the lighter side of things though; I have had a box of fake Monte 2's that I knew were not real, but after a couple years in the humi they became pretty good cigars. I quarantined them to make sure I wouldn't get beetles and/or mold as I stored them, but nothing came of it and now that I have only 2 left from that 09 box, I am enjoying them. You never really know what you are getting when you get "fake" Cubans.
Just keep positive, but cautious.
The bands look like the wrong color.
It doesn't look like they're embossed, so unless they're old...
the heads on them look sloppy and the wrapper looks awfully dark, oily and vein-y for a Monte.
I say fake.
It doesn't look like they're embossed, so unless they're old...
the heads on them look sloppy and the wrapper looks awfully dark, oily and vein-y for a Monte.
I say fake.
+1 really think they are off in all areas...
I meant to last night after I'd read this at work but forgot. I will when I get home I think I have one left from early 12.
I can also attach a photo when I get home tonight, I have a box of ten that I just got a couple of weeks ago. Pretty sure they are a mid '12 production. One thing that looks a little weird to me on the box is the month and year stamp. All of my habano boxes have a stamp that has thin letters. All of the boxes came from multiple sources over multiple years. I haven't seen a stamp with wide letters like that.
The color of my new box is more of a light paper bag kind of tone, but they might look dark because of the lighting in the photo. I can say one thing about Monty #2's is that their construction is really inconsistent, so I wouldn't call them fake off of the bat because of construction.
The color of my new box is more of a light paper bag kind of tone, but they might look dark because of the lighting in the photo. I can say one thing about Monty #2's is that their construction is really inconsistent, so I wouldn't call them fake off of the bat because of construction.
+1. I also have my doubts.
Rupe
Suburban robot that monitors reality -BOM Feb.'13
After looking at the box pictures it appears that you have 2 sets of date codes on the bottom of the box which makes these HIGHLY suspicious.
The top code (EDC UTCC) is from a date code scheme that was only used in 1999-2000
EDC = Briones Montoto - Romeo y Julieta
UTCC = 0399 (March 99)
The bottom code (EOG - MAR12) indicates that they were produced in the La Corona factory in March of 2012.
Source material - http://www.cubanlous.com/cuban-codes-i-12.html
Also check the codes to make sure that they are "branded" into the box. Burned code are authentic, ink stamped codes are not. I wasn't quite able to tell for sure from the photo but these look inked.
There's also a tax stamp that looks like it's supposed to be from Spain on the box next to the bar code sticker. I've never seen that before. All boxes from Spain should have the blue circular Altadis sticker on them which this one is missing.
The 2 date codes from over a decade apart are extremely questionable as well.