Recently got a hold of a box of Old Cohiba Cigars

[CryptoYags]

I reddit told me to stop by here. I hope I’m posting in the correct place. 
 

Procured this box a few weeks ago. I am not a cigar smoker, but The Cohiba name and the cigar band (EXCMO. Forbes Burnham) is what caught my eye. I Brought the box to a Cigar Shop in Maryland, USA (right outside DC). The two workers there seemed excited at what I had and said the box and cigars looked authentic. They gave me some advice on how to dehumidify the cigars with some moisture packets, but couldn’t give me further information. I thanked them by giving them each a cigar. Reddit gave me Some information on Forbes Burnham and how this could be something special, does anyone have information on these types of cigars? 

[SenorPerfecto]

Whoa

[havanaclub]

I can toss you a few boveda packs and tell you they look legit if you pass me a cigar
Nice pick up.


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[teamrandr]

Forbes Burnham was prime minister of Guyana.  He was known to like fine wine and cigars.  You have a wonderful piece there.  It would be hard to imagine it being fake.  They gave these out to head of state in the 70's.  Just incredible to see these turn up.  

[NSXCIGAR]

Those are quite a find. Don't recall ever seeing a custom band on Cohiba Lanceros. It would certainly have been reserved for someone significant like a head of state.

The cigars and box look to be in great condition. The party on the bands certainly has historical significance and with good ownership provenance these (if intact with 25 sticks in good condition) could be worth well north of $5,000. 

[Deeg]

I was gonna say...  I generally follow the dictum that whiskey is for drinking and cigars are for smoking, not for selling.  But that box could be worth a lot of money.

[Subcomandante]

Wow! Those guys at the cigar shop scored. 

[prodigy]

Any background history? Where they're from, how they were stored etc?? Amazing find!

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[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Those are quite a find. Don't recall ever seeing a custom band on Cohiba Lanceros. It would certainly have been reserved for someone significant like a head of state.

The cigars and box look to be in great condition. The party on the bands certainly has historical significance and with good ownership provenance these (if intact with 25 sticks in good condition) could be worth well north of $5,000. 

given what we are seeing some current boxes going for today, i would have thought, had it still been a full box and in reasonable condition, well north would be a serious understatement. amazing find. 

if the owner did prefer to sell, the story with providing the two cigars to the shop would not knock that much off. 

[kart339]

Did the older Cubans come in cellos? When did they stop doing that?

[JohnS]

11 minutes ago, kart339 said:

Did the older Cubans come in cellos? When did they stop doing that?

Apart from small machine-made Puritos produced by ICT (such as the Cohiba and Trinidad Shorts, for example), Habanos cigars have not been packaged with cellophane since 1992.

[ATGroom]

As far as I am aware, this style of packaging is the lowest level of diplomatic gift. Normally they would be given to embassy staff, representatives on a trade junket etc. They're the kind of thing that various Cuban government departments might have a few of lying around that they can give out to VIPs on the spur of the moment. Sometimes they were sold on Cubana flights in the 70s.

Lanceros with a personalised band are the highest level of diplomatic gift, normally reserved only for heads of state as a personal gift of Castro. Normally they would be presented in a 100 count presidential humidor or other elaborate packaging. To find custom banded cigars in a "regular" box is not something I've ever heard of.

So, while they do look basically legit, I suspect there may be a repackage or something somewhere in their history.

 

Or maybe not, diplo cigars are the most opaque of all cigar releases so really anything may have happened.

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

7 minutes ago, ATGroom said:

Lanceros with a personalised band are the highest level of diplomatic gift, normally reserved only for heads of state as a personal gift of Castro. Normally they would be presented in a 100 count presidential humidor or other elaborate packaging. To find custom banded cigars in a "regular" box is not something I've ever heard of.

So, while they do look basically legit, I suspect there may be a repackage or something somewhere in their history.

 

Or maybe not, diplo cigars are the most opaque of all cigar releases so really anything may have happened.

Great info Alex, that's what I suspected. I've also never seen dress boxed personalized Lanceros. I also doubt they're fake but yes, repackaging would be a possibility. And they might not have been diplomatic gifts at all but a custom request/order by Burnham or even personal gift from Castro. As you point out, the personalized bands were unusual for diplomatic purposes. Lanceros were out of cellophane in 1982 and that was toward the end of Burnham's career. Apparently Cuba and Guyana had a very cozy relationship throughout the 70s sending workers back and forth so certainly I would imagine Burnham could have gotten any cigars any way he wanted.

These likely would have been acquired in Guyana or Cuba only, but more likely Guyana. Would love to know how these cigars got to where they are. There is no doubt an interesting story behind how they ended up in a cigar shop in Maryland.

[Wailbait]

I have nothing of merit to add to this.  But boy is that cool.  Great box design!

[BoliDan]

Nice. Good ss getting some 91 davidoffs imo

[kart339]

1 hour ago, NSXCIGAR said:

There is no doubt an interesting story behind how they ended up in a cigar shop in Maryland.

Don't think the cigars were acquired in the Maryland cigar store... atleast the way I read it, OP seems to have taken the cigars there for inspection and re-humidification advice.

Personally, I would be loth to smoke these after all these years. They are more like a collector's item now. It is really cool even seeing pics of them!

[WineAcrobat]

Wow~! You gave them each a cigar from here?! ? that is a mighty fine gift! 

[NSXCIGAR]

24 minutes ago, kart339 said:

Don't think the cigars were acquired in the Maryland cigar store

You're right, I read that wrong. 

Would definitely need a complete history of these cigars which I'm not sure the OP has.

Unfortunately, breaking up that box was a serious mistake. May have resulted in a 50% reduction in value, however I can understand one unfamiliar with vintage cigars wouldn't have realized the importance of intact boxes.

These cigars are something quite unusual and something this unusual requires complete provenance for anything close to full value. As is, I suspect possible re-packaging and now there are two cigars missing. We're talking the difference potentially between a $1,500 box and a $15,000 box. 

[NSXCIGAR]

The only other modern Cohiba I've ever seen with personalized bands are the Uday Hussein Double Lanceros which were not diplomatic gifts but custom orders and also had the standard Cohiba band as well:

[nKostyan]

Congratulations, a great find!

In Russia, such named cigars are often found. The USSR helped Cuba a lot, so received a lot of gifts. And the culture of Smoking cigars in the USSR was not, so most cigars have survived to this day.

 

Recently at the flea market I saw these:

[CryptoYags]

Thank you so much for all the information! The was procured (I won’t say acquired since I’m in the US) from the estate of a friends dad who had passed. He apparently was a retired Federal Employee who collected random things. He wasn’t much of a cigar smoker either... There were only two boxes of cigars add at as I know in the estate. The second box  was similar to the one I had, but in addition had the band (EXCMO Forbes Burnham imprinted on the box from what I remember. This box was a partial as well. I  will try and locate this box. Hopefully it wasn’t tossed. 

[Nino]

11 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Those are quite a find. Don't recall ever seeing a custom band on Cohiba Lanceros. It would certainly have been reserved for someone significant like a head of state.

 

 

7 hours ago, ATGroom said:

Lanceros with a personalised band are the highest level of diplomatic gift, normally reserved only for heads of state as a personal gift of Castro. Normally they would be presented in a 100 count presidential humidor or other elaborate packaging. To find custom banded cigars in a "regular" box is not something I've ever heard of.

So, while they do look basically legit, I suspect there may be a repackage or something somewhere in their history.

 

Or maybe not, diplo cigars are the most opaque of all cigar releases so really anything may have happened.

 

I've seen these Lanceros Diplo boxes at El Laguito with personalized bands for the King of Spain.

They come in that same white box and bear ONLY the personalized band ( I've also seen fakes bearing both the Cohiba band and the King of Spain band ).

[rcarlson]

Was it a full box before giving away the cigars to the fellas at the shop? 

[FireDigger]

I wonder what conditions these were kept under your friend's dad's possession? If they were humidified, these might still be smokeable, but if not, these are probably purely a collector's item. If they've been underhumidified for years, I doubt a few Boveda packs would help now. Either way, this is a great find and thanks for sharing!

[CryptoYags]

The box was not full - it had 3 or 4 missing when it fell into my hands. I gave a couple away before my visit to the cigar shop, including one to a childhood friend my have used the wrapper to smoke something other than tobacco. I sent him a text late last night to not smoke it if he still had it ... I haven’t heard back yet. 
 

The friend who I got the box from couldn’t give me any details on how the boxes were stored, but said his father did not have a humidor, nor was a smoker (that he knew of)

 

The Cigar Shop guys said they would let me know when they smoked the Cohibas - hopefully they are still smokeable.