Box Code Deciphering

[El Presidente]

 

What period of time are we looking at 

[NSXCIGAR]

I don't know if that code is correct or what the heck that first character is (F?) but if accurate the UC would be 1987 which is consistent with the Cubatabaco stamp (1985-1994)

[Bijan]

Additionally N or ON would be January (but yeah the first letter looks like an F):

https://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/packaging/information#Box_Date_Codes

Month	Month Number	Month Code		Year	Year Code
January	1	N or ON		1985	UL
February	2	I or OI		1986	UA
March	3	V or OV		1987	UC
April	4	E or OE		1988	UU
May	5	L or OL		1989	US
June	6	A or OA		1990	SO
July	7	C or OC		1991	SN
August	8	U or OU		1992	SI
September	9	S or OS		1993	SV
October	10	NO		1994	SE
November	11	NN		1995	SL
December	12	NI		1996	SA
				1997	SC
				1998	SU

[traveller]

Maybe its a E? and they didn't want to overlap the cubatabaco stamp? 

[NSXCIGAR]

4 hours ago, Bijan said:

Additionally N or ON would be January (but yeah the first letter looks like an F):

Yes, the N is a clue that it's either Jan or Nov. I really don't think it's NN, but it doesn't look like an O either, and there is a character there so I suppose it's equally likely to be Jan or Nov since the second N is crystal clear. 

All we can know for sure is year. 

I haven't seen a lot of 1985-1987 boxes but I can imagine there was likely quite a bit of variation and inconsistency in the first era of codes. For example, there doesn't appear to be a factory code on this box which should be there. 

Perhaps the F was part of the intended factory code (FPG and several Pinar factories used F) and was stamped partially or accidentally combined with the otherwise correct "NUC" code? 

Again, in this era, lots of explanations for how a code could get butchered.

[Jack]

When they draw the box code with a felt pen...

[El Presidente]

13 minutes ago, Jack said:

When they draw the box code with a felt pen...

....bring your kids to work day?