Greatest. Gift. Ever.

[Herf N Turf]

Originally Posted by RedSoxFan

By embossing do you mean raised and shiny? They are that. May be the camera, its old and I had a hard time getting a picture without the flash taking over the whole pic.

Yeah. The "COHIBA" lettering should be raised and shiny; like buffed gold. You should be able to see three, white, vertical dots along the upper part of the band. They should not be cut off, or abreviated, in any way. The wrappers should be characteristically smooth. The hand and eye appeal should be first-rate. The aroma from the box should be slightly sweet, but with difinitive notes of nuts, wood and earth.

Like I said, the box looks ok... (as far as what I see in the pics) and since it's from your uncle (presumedly trusted family member), I'm leaning towards legit on these.

[Mitch]

You could send one my may, I can check it out for you, haha. Congrads on the baby bro. I had a little girl October 1st. We had some fun last Christmas huh, lol.

[RedSoxFan]

Originally Posted by JCK

A couple things I noticed if you're still curious about the cigars.

Thanks, I'll check out the sites. Regardless, one hell of a gift that I'm super excited about... I guess the true test will be when I light them up!

[havanajohn]

Originally Posted by JCK

A couple things I noticed if you're still curious about the cigars.

First photo. I'm not sure what countries are using hologram stickers now, but typically the hologram sticker. e.g. bottom right hand corner was reserved for boxes purchased directly in Cuba. The hologram stickers are not placed on boxes for export to other trade countries. That's not to say other Habanos regions don't use their own holograms.

The bands themselves.

1. You should see three clear rows of dots. The gold embossing and white letter box area should not cut off any of these three rows. In the third photo, the third cigar from the left has the gold embossing for the white letter box between the 2nd and 3rd rows of dots.

2. The gold embossing for the letter box should be within the boundary of the letterbox and is typically a little bit wider than the gold pinstripe I see on these cigars.

You could chalk it up to a REALLY bad printing day in Cuba, but I've never seen anything this bad on a box of Esplendidos.

There is another quality check you can do for the clasp of the box. Habanos only uses one manufacturer for the Cohiba boxes but I don't recall who they are. I think you could probably google for an answer.

There are some other checks you could run on the warranty seal as well, but you'd have to look at a better photo or up close.

Beyond being a great site for general info on some rare cigars, this is a good primer and one I refer to when I've got questions regarding authenticity of Habanos.

Vitolas - Fake Cuban cigars

The Ultimate Counterfeit Cuban Cigar Primer

+1:

[madurolover]

Originally Posted by havanajohn

+1:

Ji hit the proverbial nail on the head. The only boxes with a hologram are those sold in Cuba as far as I know. Also while you may occasionally find a bad looking band on a lot of brands it is odd to find on Cohibas since this is Cuba's flagship brand.

Regardless of that, it is the thought that counts.

[ejgarnut]

Congrats on the little one.