New LGC MdO4 band oddity

[NSXCIGAR]

Just picked up these two boxes. OCT 23. Looks like they've reverted to a pre-17/09 style, small band similar to the old MdO3. Wonder if this is a permanent change @ATGroom?

[JohnS]

Nice acquisition there, @NSXCIGAR! 👍

[NSXCIGAR]

4 minutes ago, JohnS said:

Nice acquisition there, @NSXCIGAR! 👍

Ha, yes, very lucky to get them. First boxes they had seen in Cuba in years. Unfortunately smoking them before 3 years old will be a waste! 

[Tunkat92]

Interesting, my ‘23 mdo4 box does not have that style band. What's the factory code on yours? Mine is EBP I believe Sept. 23. I will have to double check though.

[NSXCIGAR]

7 hours ago, Tunkat92 said:

Whats the factory code on yours?

EBP OCT 23. So we've pinpointed the month! 

 

[Fugu]

Seems there’s hope for a continued production of the MdO4 if they found it worthwhile to make a new batch of the small bands (unless they just found a bunch of old MdO3 ones back in the drawer...😅).

But good to see current production alive and kicking @NSXCIGAR 👍.

What I find noteworthy is that this seems to be the first run not coming out of the mother factory.

[ATGroom]

I have sighted some other OCT 23 MdO4 that have the small bands.

Hard to say what the future will hold.

Basically as I understand it the policy is and always has been that for the portfolio brands the regular production cigars get the lower quality 'old' bands that are printed in Cuba, and the special releases get the Vridjag bands which are the redesigned 'new' bands. Any redesign of a band will have the text standardised to "Habana Cuba", not plain Habana or Havana or anything else, and will also remove any reference to pre-Revolution brand owners.

In practice, regular production portfolio cigars often have the redesigned bands, I can only guess because of shortages of the 'old' bands. The last few infrequent batches of MdO4 have had the new bands.

So, it seems like maybe they made another batch of bands and the cigars have now returned to their correct band. In the future I'd say both bands will probably appear from time to time.

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Fugu said:

Seems there’s hope for a continued production of the MdO4

They've never stopped but the last big batch drop I can recall was from mid-17. Since then it's been a trickle but I have seen production every year since 20, although very little. Same as Fundys and 898 for the most part. 

[Fugu]

13 hours ago, ATGroom said:

In the future I'd say both bands will probably appear from time to time.

In fact, Alex, there have been at least three band patterns (plus variations thereof) over the more recent years, as per my recollection, used in the MdO4. For most of the ‘00er and ‘10er years, the regular one had been used (i.e. the same as for the No. 2, labelled “Habana”, with the inner end clipped to shorter length), before that, mostly the smaller one from the No. 3 (“Habana”), and the latest, the large one from 2017/18 (“Habana-Cuba”), what looked to me more like a makeshift-use of that band on the MdO4, taken from the regional releases, when they ran out of the regular band. Always odd-looking on that small girth. Seems they use what they have available at the time.

11 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

They've never stopped but the last big batch drop I can recall was from mid-17. Since then it's been a trickle but I have seen production every year since 20, although very little. Same as Fundys and 898 for the most part. 

Yep, but the newly produced band (if it’s not just a barn find) gives hope to a somehow “ramped up” production...

[NSXCIGAR]

10 hours ago, Fugu said:

Yep, but the newly produced band (if it’s not just a barn find) gives hope to a somehow “ramped up” production...

Well, we can hope! Looks like we have a Sep & Oct 23 burst and we'll see if more pops up in the next month with NOV and DEC codes.

11 hours ago, Fugu said:

and the latest, the large one from 2017/18 (“Habana-Cuba”), what looked to me more like a makeshift-use of that band on the MdO4, taken from the regional releases, when they ran out of the regular band.

I'm fairly sure the 17+ MdO4 bands were specific to the MdO4 and not trimmed from ERs. They were smaller. There's no way a larger band could be trimmed enough to fit and have the entire logo be visible on a 32 RG.

These new ones really do look like the ones from the MdO1 and MdO3. Both were around until 2010 so I suppose it's possible they found a stash and just used them. I'll try and get a better image of the band as I think the quality of the band is also more in line with the old bands. 

Also EBP is Camajuani factory and you're absolutely correct--I can't ever recall MdO4 coming from a factory other than Partagas. Perhaps there were some MdO1/3 bands hanging around at Camajuani. 

[Fugu]

15 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm fairly sure the 17+ MdO4 bands were specific to the MdO4 and not trimmed from ERs. They were smaller. There's no way a larger band could be trimmed enough to fit and have the entire logo be visible on a 32 RG.

I recall we had a thread about it at the time, when I wondered about the size of the band in that prod run (at least mine had) and thought it were a new band. Just to learn upon checking that it seemed a heavily trimmed normal ‘speciality’ band (now, with launching the Turquinos, having become ‘standard’). Still, I could be wrong. Will check when I am back home. We’ll certainly find out 😄

15 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Also EBP is Camajuani factory

... and not that I meant to imply there’s anything to worry about that. For years, Camajuani has done and does an excellent job on other skinnies, from my experience.

[Fugu]

Update: It’s as I recalled, identical band as is being used in the specials (probably the only one in use / produced at that time) with ~24.6 mm face-hight. Flaps had to be trimmed wide back into the gold medals to make it fit.

And just to add, now upon a second look onto your pics @NSXCIGAR: It cannot be a ‘barn find‘ of old bands, since yours here are bearing the Habana-Cuba wording. So, they have to be new (hopefully a harbinger of further good to come!... 😄)

Edit: no, it’s not yours, it was @Tunkat92‘s I was looking at. Then, those appear to be new.

[NSXCIGAR]

Closest I could get. Bands are 10mm top to bottom. The printing quality does look much better than the old bands. 

[gormag38]

On 3/8/2024 at 9:56 PM, NSXCIGAR said:

Also EBP

The box I nabbed also has an EBP code. JUN or JUL 23 from what I recall. I do have some singles of MdO 1 and Mdo3 rolling around, I imagine they'd look much closer to the bands on your boxes. Regardless, it'll be interesting to see what bands others post in the coming months. 

[garifo]

I just acquired the same box 2 weeks ago. Same code as yours. EBP OCT 23

[Fugu]

20 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Closest I could get. Bands are 10mm top to bottom. The printing quality does look much better than the old bands.

I wouldn’t say so. Defo looking like the old small band. Here’s examples of some of my No. 3s - same band. There’s minor variation due to printing, but e.g. notice the characteristic yellow colour fringes (shading), the form of the glass in her hand, the somewhat smeared R with the shortish leg in ‘GLORIA’, the gap in the background yellow above L and O etc.

While those of Tunkat and Gormac appear to be new smaller bands based on the current standard band design.

[NSXCIGAR]

3 hours ago, Fugu said:

Defo looking like the old small band.

It does look like the exact template for the old bands but I think the printing is crisper. These would have been extremely crisp for the time but I'd bet they're new but reprinted from the original template. I'm going to try and remove one to check for a printer's mark.

[Fugu]

7 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

It does look like the exact template for the old bands but I think the printing is crisper. These would have been extremely crisp for the time but I'd bet they're new but reprinted from the original template. I'm going to try and remove one to check for a printer's mark.

Probably. But it may as well be in the pics. I for one have a hard time to tell any difference. At least not on the cigar in hand. What’s definitely crisper looking is your cigars...! 😂

[Fugu]

33 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm going to try and remove one to check for a printer's mark.

Here’s one of mine for your reference. Again, slight differences (and not the best pic).

Edit: another one with different light. Brings the embossing out a bit better.

[Ghabanos]

On 3/8/2024 at 5:50 PM, NSXCIGAR said:

Just picked up these two boxes. OCT 23. Looks like they've reverted to a pre-17/09 style, small band similar to the old MdO3. Wonder if this is a permanent change @ATGroom?

I'm voting this a flex post... lol

Jealous for sure!

[NSXCIGAR]

10 hours ago, Fugu said:

I for one have a hard time to tell any difference.

Here's the full band. No printer's mark. And I'd tend to agree, I'm not sure I can tell the difference between the old style and these. Even the poor embossing of the gold medals is about the same--a hallmark of the old Cuban-printed bands. Are we thinking these in fact are a "barn find"? 

[Fugu]

Difficult to tell. I think it’s been at least printed on the same machinery. But why would they bother to do a current reprint when they got a perfectly fine new band with he correct current labelling? (see Tunkat92 and Gormag38). Still remains somewhat mysterious.

[Doctorossi]

Whichever band is used, I'm just so happy to see them again!

[KCCubano]

19 minutes ago, Doctorossi said:

Whichever band is used, I'm just so happy to see them again!

No doubt!

[Stoyan]

Just checked my boxes.

May 23 on the left and January 21 on the right