joncat Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Last night I met with a few friends and for a game of cards. We all enjoyed a good cigar as we are all cigar smokers. I am the least experienced of all. Someone brought a box of San Cristobal Murallas. The source was suspect to say the least. She claimed she was divorcing her husband and had some of his cigars she wanted to get rid of. She had an unopened box of these cigars with a date code of Feb 14. Asking price $320. The other more experienced cigar smokers examined the cigars and felt they were authentic. I was more interested in the card game and went along with what my friends decided. We split the box among 4 of us. I ended up with 6 cigars for $80. I do not have the box. The cigars look good to me. I have never smoked a San Cristobal. Today I went on line to learn more about them. The cubancigarwebsite states that these were LCDH special release and were discontinued in 2011. The Habanos site indicates they are a current production cigar but not LCDH. These particular cigars have a LCDH band. I am thoroughly confused. I suspect we have some fakes. Bottom line I do not buy from suspect sources. My friends are confident in their cigar knowledge and claim to know the difference between a real Cuban and a fake. If they got duped it is worth more than $80 to me in bragging rights at our next card game. What do you think? I am not experienced in posting pics but will post pics of the cigars as soon as I can get my kids to show me how. Thank you all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmitch Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Last night I met with a few friends and for a game of cards. We all enjoyed a good cigar as we are all cigar smokers. I am the least experienced of all. Someone brought a box of San Cristobal Murallas. The source was suspect to say the least. She claimed she was divorcing her husband and had some of his cigars she wanted to get rid of. She had an unopened box of these cigars with a date code of Feb 14. Asking price $320. The other more experienced cigar smokers examined the cigars and felt they were authentic. I was more interested in the card game and went along with what my friends decided. We split the box among 4 of us. I ended up with 6 cigars for $80. I do not have the box. The cigars look good to me. I have never smoked a San Cristobal. Today I went on line to learn more about them. The cubancigarwebsite states that these were LCDH special release and were discontinued in 2011. The Habanos site indicates they are a current production cigar but not LCDH. These particular cigars have a LCDH band. I am thoroughly confused. I suspect we have some fakes. Bottom line I do not buy from suspect sources. My friends are confident in their cigar knowledge and claim to know the difference between a real Cuban and a fake. If they got duped it is worth more than $80 to me in bragging rights at our next card game. What do you think? I am not experienced in posting pics but will post pics of the cigars as soon as I can get my kids to show me how. Thank you all You are correct that if they did, indeed, come out of a box with a February 14 date code, they are fakes. You are also correct that they discontinued these LCDH's in 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 I thought so. My next question is why would someone bother to counterfeit a low volume cigar? I understand Cohiba, Montecristo, etc. but SCDLH? That makes no sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Presidente Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 I thought so. My next question is why would someone bother to counterfeit a low volume cigar? I understand Cohiba, Montecristo, etc. but SCDLH? That makes no sense. Someone bought them...so their strategy worked. It does come in a nice box and presentation for those not knowledgeable catches the eye first. ....I would never purchase cigars from a wife who was divorcing her husband ....poor bugger 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 Here are some pics of the fake cigars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy04 Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 How did it taste? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 I haven't smoked one yet as I was already smoking a monte 2 at the time but my buddies all said they were awesome. I will smoke one this weekend. They do look good though. I have more pics but couldn't send because resolution too high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oliverdst Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 It will be helpful if you can provide us some bands pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcarlson Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Those may be fakes but they are mighty pretty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MostlyHarmless Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Do you have a picture of the box and the BD? The cigars themself look excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC4 Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 The cigar itself looks very good for being fake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habana Mike Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Looks like all the HABANA letters on the band are the same size. Mine look more like this HABANA. The yellow looks a bit off too. I'm thinking a decent fake. These from 2003, 2008 and 2013 examples Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colt45 Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 I've no idea whether these are counterfeit or not, but thinking out loud....... I'd agree with Mike regarding the bands - though all caps, I think the "H" would typically be a larger font size than the rest. I guess if I had access to boxes and bands (legit or not) for a certain cigar, that is the cigar I'd "produce". On the flip side, I think I'd be a bit surprised if someone intentionally decided to counterfeit this specific cigar, as the rodolfo is fairly unique. If counterfeiting, not that difficult to research production dates. Anything interesting re the box - double layer of artwork, revisado stamp, etc? Again, just thinking out loud..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbandz Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 Concerning dates,it seems to be that fakers are afraid to sell a box with any age already on it. The most blatant fakes I have seen were a 2006 EL with a 2011 date code,and the ubiquitous Cohiba with the long tailed C in the word "Cuba" I have seen a fake box of Murallas,as I recall they were very pretty sticks,but I knew the seller was dealing fakes, and I passed. No outer box,month old dates on the inner box,no SCDLH paper inside,and 250.00 asking price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 24, 2014 Author Share Posted May 24, 2014 One of my buddies ended up with the box. I will ask him to bring it and I will post pics on line. I will post more pics of the bands as well. The pics I have are too large to post 2.15MB. I will take lower resolution pics and post. I recall the box came with an outer cardboard box and an interior lacquered box similar to those posed online when I did a google search of the cigar. I recall the box had the word Muralla etched/burnt into at least one of the short sides. It looked to be an authentic box not easily counterfeited. The date code on the box was FEB 14. That, to me, was the red flag if production ceased in 2011. I intend to smoke one today and will let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colt45 Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 The pics I have are too large to post 2.15MB. I will take lower resolution pics and post. For what it's worth, you should be able to resize your images on a mac or pc. On mac, open the image in preview and adjust size in tools. Not sure on pc, but I think it's done in photo gallery or something similar. If you have photoshop, you can do it there as well. Not a bad idea to resize copies and keep your originals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 25, 2014 Author Share Posted May 25, 2014 Photo of band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPS72 Posted May 25, 2014 Share Posted May 25, 2014 I checked the bands on my Murallas tonight and the letter 'H' in Habana is a larger type size than the remaining letters (similar to Habana Mike's examples above). I suppose some bands could have been printed differently but the box date still seems very fishy regardless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 26, 2014 Author Share Posted May 26, 2014 The word HABANO is all the same font. The H is not bigger in my cigars. This is yet another red flag, although the cigars are better looking than the real ones posted on this thread. I smoked one of the cigars today. This was my first experience with SCHLH. I found the cigar to be extremely light and bland. I prefer a more a full flavoured cigar (Partagas/Romon Allones). My friends think its a flavour bomb. I still don't understand why anyone would bother to counterfeit such a low volume cigar especially when their market is apparently unknowledgeable people who may not have even heard of the marca. In any event I will assume they are fakes but I am still not 100% convinced. Maybe they were stolen. Who knows and frankly its not worth worrying about. I have 5 more and wont be rushing out to buy any more of this marca anytime soon. I may offer them to my friends at out next card game as they clearly appreciate them more than me. Thank you all for your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamondog Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Muralla with a '14 date, fake, end of story, these were never hard to source and still not....I defy anyone to buy a box and get a latter date than '09 lol....so many aged kicking around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintLuis Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Those may be fakes but they are mighty pretty. I agree. The wrappers look excellent, and even the color appears right. But the date on the box, and the EL band is fatal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
investandprosper Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 I agree. The wrappers look excellent, and even the color appears right. But the date on the box, and the EL band is fatal. Isn't that an LCDH band? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gurman Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 Do you want to say that HABANA (instead of Habana) on SCdlH bands is the sign of fake? I bought box of Fuerzas some time ago with such inscription. Everything the rest looks OK. Just checked Trevors' site - there is no band with capitalized HABANA. Is this a proof of fake??? (Box code MLO MAY11). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joncat Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share Posted May 31, 2014 I believe the reference was to the SCHLH band not the LCDH band. The originals are all caps with a larger font H. Mine are all the same font. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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