Off centered Taino's head on Siglo IV

[MC4]

A friend of mine gifted me a Siglo IV - RAE JUL 2015.  I noticed the Taino's head is off centered which made me think if it was a fake??  The cigar itself looked and tasted wonderful.  He bought the 5x5 from a popular online site around or a bit after 2015.

In comparison, I am including a label from Siglo IV box I have, SOU OCT 2021.

Would love to hear your comments on what you think if the off centered one is a fake? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nKostyan]

It looks bad. Try to see the microprinting through a microscope.

[gormag38]

From the first picture (under UV) the outer taino head doesn't appear to be as crisp and the outline not as smooth. I also noticed a bit of white on the right hand side of the gold COHIBA that clearly shouldn't be there. Could very easily be printer quality has improved since then,but could also be a fake band. The other thing I noticed was the CHB### on both bands. I thought I read somewhere recently that the hidden UV serial was implemented in 2017. So one wouldn't expect a 2015 to have it. (unless I'm mistaken as to when the CHB### was implemented). 

Overall the quality of band in question would lead me to believe that it was a fake. 

 

[nKostyan]

Forgery of the CHB### is not difficult. I've seen it on crude fakes

[Corylax18]

2 hours ago, gormag38 said:

From the first picture (under UV) the outer taino head doesn't appear to be as crisp and the outline not as smooth. I also noticed a bit of white on the right hand side of the gold COHIBA that clearly shouldn't be there. Could very easily be printer quality has improved since then,but could also be a fake band. The other thing I noticed was the CHB### on both bands. I thought I read somewhere recently that the hidden UV serial was implemented in 2017. So one wouldn't expect a 2015 to have it. (unless I'm mistaken as to when the CHB### was implemented). 

Overall the quality of band in question would lead me to believe that it was a fake. 

 

Yup, from CCW: 

Embossed, with hologram logo and strips top and bottom. Since 2017, there is a hidden code on the right wing of the band that can be revealed with a UV blacklight.

If this cigar was purchased in 2015 or 2016 that's a very bad sign. Its odd that the # would start showing up on fakes before HSA added it though. Based on the overall quality of the band and this discrepancy I would lean heavily towards this being a fake. 

[vladdraq]

That's a fake band 100%, look the difference of the glow under the UV light. That's a dead giveaway. The real band is glowing literally, the fakes are just more  blueish "lit" up, and that's because of the white little spots on the band, but the glow is not there. You can see the difference between the little dots glowing on the real band and the square with COHIBA written in it, on the fake one is pretty much the same, just blueish.

[MC4]

Thank you all for your replies.  I also thought it's an obvious fake band at least and cigar despite looking and tasting wonderful.

For what it's worth,  the fact that it was supposedly 2015 cigar with the lower corner CBH026 code, did not make sense to me since I also had recently seen somewhere that they started having that code with 2017 cigars.

So I shared my thoughts with my friend, and he didn't believe it was fake, which is fine with me.  But he did mention that the cigar might be 2021.  That explains the CBH026.  Unfortunately, if in fact it is from 2021, he doesn't know the source or vendor.   He also doesn't have any more from the same batch/box for comparing.

[jfestrelabr]

10 hours ago, vladdraq said:

That's a fake band 100%, look the difference of the glow under the UV light. That's a dead giveaway. The real band is glowing literally, the fakes are just more  bluish "lit" up, and that's because of the white little spots on the band, but the glow is not there. You can see the difference between the little dots glowing on the real band and the square with COHIBA written in it, on the fake one is pretty much the same, just bluish.

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