mike.misc

Hey folks, Got given a box of Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchills from a friend but my instincts tells me this is a fake. The box ticks for all the usual warranty seal/watermarks, microcodes and Habanos website checks, but the cigar themselves are throwing me off. Can anyone part some wisdom? I've attached some pictures of the box and cigars. The left cigar is genuine and the right is the suspect. I noticed: - shades are different - size different - band is different. The genuine band has a deeper red, sharper printing and the words "Habana Cuba" is different. The "Wide Churchill" band is also different. Genuine is a bronze gold whilst the suspect is a yellow gold. To compare the two bands I took a separate picture with the genuine on top and suspect on the bottom.. I decided to cut off a portion of the suspect to see if there were any shortfillings but it looks to be okay? The only caveat is that I don't know what year the genuine cigar is to compare apples with apples. Thanks folks!

The UV coat of arms has the microcode. I've been told the genuine UV watermark does not have the microcode, only on he normal print of the warranty seal itself. The above pics from jfest shows the legitimate coat of arms not having microcodes as an example.

Hi folks! New to the forum but recent cigar lover and learning the new world of cigars. Been exploring Habanos recently and saw the minefield of fakes to watch out for. Learning heaps from the forum topics here! Mike

Hi there, I purchased a few boxes of varied Habanos from [moderated] recently. The lastest boxes sent show no coat of arms under UV but the serial code checks out on the official Habanos SA website. I queried [moderated] and they said they contacted their distributors who advised some boxes no longer has the UV coat of arms. The microcodes are all correct, holograms look legit, and the Habanos cellophane paper curls in your hands as its supposed to. I asked if there's a way to confirm that the warranty seals aren't fakes that have duplicated the bar codes from an original box, but [moderated] kept assuring me they're legitimate. They're unable to advise who their distributors are. I compared the latest boxes to the one I bought previously and the previous one definitely has a coat of arms. I read on another thread they stopped putting UV coat of arms from around May 2023. Weird thing is my box with the UV coat of arms was stamped 2023 and the recent ones stamped 2022...see the pics Does anyone know if Habanos stopped putting UV coat of arms on the warranty seals? I