Question on Cohiba bands

[Weeklystogie]

I was looking at a Cohiba band that I received from a fake robusto single which has a few things wrong with it - sloppy embossing, darker/bolder Habana, Cuba font, band is slightly larger than a real band, etc.

One thing I was wondering about is how on the fake the embossing is slightly misaligned and cuts off the third row of squares above the Cohiba. Does this ever happen on real Cohiba bands - that the embossing might overlap some of the top squares or that some of the top squares might be cut-off? I'm just curious because I thought I had read that there can be some variances in the top three rows of squares so if anyone can educate me I would appreciate it!

Incidentally I gave the cigar to a friend who enjoyed it. Here is a pic of the real and fake bands:

[mk05]

I was looking at a Cohiba band that I received from a fake robusto single which has a few things wrong with it - sloppy embossing, darker/bolder Habana, Cuba font, band is slightly larger than a real band, etc.

One thing I was wondering about is how on the fake the embossing is slightly misaligned and cuts off the third row of squares above the Cohiba. Does this ever happen on real Cohiba bands?

Incidentally I gave the cigar to a friend who enjoyed it. Here is a pic of the real and fake bands:

Yes in this case the font thickness is the giveaway. Generally speaking, Cohiba bands are completely flawless. Have I seen weird dotted bands? Yes. Do I believe the story? I smile and nod, but I'll smoke my own...

Ouch for your friend who smoked the drywall and insulation foam. Maybe he'll learn to gauge the cigar than the band from this experience.

[CanuckSARTech]

I've always noticed that the embossing on fake bands always (EDIT - sorry, not always, but generally) seems to be better quality. That is to say, that on real bands, the font, colour, dots, general quality, etc., are always top notch compared to fakes, but then the embossing always seems to be all over the place, never 100% correct. And with fake bands (some that are pretty damn close), there always seems to be lots of issues, but more often than not, their embossing of the gold finish almost always looks better than the real thing.

Good ol' Cuba - it is what it is.

EDIT - This is after going through about 15 or 16 or so different boxes of Cohiba products over the past few years, and another dozen in my humidor now. Aside from three or four being "grey market" / sketchy, all the rest are/were authentic - purchased from very trusted retailers and hosts, LCDH's, directly down in Cuba through proper stores, etc., etc.

[Weeklystogie]

Right, in this case the smeared embossing was the most noticeable thing, even more so when you hold it than in the pictures. Anyway live and learn. Thanks for the info guys.