Montecristo Bands - Old, New, Newest

[Ginseng]

A member of another forum recently raised a question about the new Montecristo bands in. Coincidentally, a few days earlier, a colleague contacted me about this exact issue. Until very recently, it was not widely known that Habanos had slipstreamed a change into the design and execution of the Montecristo band. In fact, if memory serves, the Monte band had last been updated sometime in 2003. In any case, a brand new Monte Petit Edmundo was soon on its way to me for examination.

Here is a comparative photo of the very old band and the "new" band just recently obsoleted. Notice the more highly detailed fleur de lis on the "new" band and the significantly crisper graphics. The two dots flanking the central ring are also visibly larger on the "new" band. There is also a difference in the paper stock used. The old band used a matte finished plain paper. The "new" band used a glossy finish stock.

Now, here is a comparative photo of the "new" band and the very new band first seen on the Petit Edmundo. The box date for the Petit Edmundo is November 2006. The paper stock seems not have changed and neither have the elements of the printed design. However, three features are now enhanced by embossing. These three features are the inner and outer rings and the fleur de lis.

As to the claim that the added embossing is a device to deter counterfeiting, I do not believe this to be entirely credible. I've seen many counterfeits and many with detailed, high quality embossing that rivals the authentic goods. I suspect that the most reasonable objective is simply to dress up the band a little. In that case, getting the registration right would help. BTW, this is yet another example of why registration should never be used to gauge authenticity.

Wilkey

[mr.harten]

Very interesting. Thanks Wilkey!

[acecchetto]

Great information! Thanks!

[Well Armed]

Very interesting! Monte loves changing their bands. Rob, you heard anything about this change?

[Jimmy2]

I have heard this to its true.

[log1k]

Thanks for the great info.

[El Presidente]

Well done Wilkey!

I had a discussion with a good friend in Habanos back in October who told me at the time that they had contracted the production of certain new bands and dress box decals to a German firm. His reasons were that the quality was far higher and the price the same.

[Ginseng]

» Well done Wilkey!

»

» I had a discussion with a good friend in Habanos back in October who told

» me at the time that they had contracted the production of certain new

» bands and dress box decals to a German firm. His reasons were that the

» quality was far higher and the price the same.

Well done, Sam! Thanks for the additional evidence.

Rob, that's good to hear. Although I'm surprised at the degree of misregistration of the emboss. That degree of variation in such a simple band seems unusual for a German printer.

Wilkey

[El Presidente]

That degree of variation in such a simple

» band seems unusual for a German printer.

»

» Wilkey

Wilkey, I will re-confirm when in Havana February.

Maybe they got what they paid for

[jqmunro]

So is there really any change with the Cohiba Siglo boxes that some people were talking about a little while back?

[wp2]

Thanks for the great info & pics.

[CoryOllis]

Well done, indeed! Great close-up shots.

Thanks, Wilkey

[strayvector]

To confirm Wilkey's findings, here are two bands that I photographed. Top is from a recent Monte no.4 and bottom is from a Monte Petite Edmundo. Sorry for the quality of the pic, but you should be able to see the embossing.