These RyJ Wide Churchills look fake. Thoughts?

[lorettaboy]

Just purchased a package of 3 RyJ Wide churchill here in Cuba. The store here in my 5 star resort is selling them. The band looks fake to me  I should have taken more time to investigate. Just figures they would be legit given where I purchased the. Looking for confirmation.  

[Chas.Alpha]

If those are fake, we’re all doomed…😳

Somebody beat my with a spoon if I steer this nice young man wrong. 100% good. Bring me a couple back? 😀

CAH

[lorettaboy]

Hopefully i'm just being paranoid. But the embossed coins have almost no detail showing. And the gold beaded borders don't seem to be imbossed at all. 

[lorettaboy]

Here are photos sent to me by a friend who works in a lcdh outlet. Noticable difference.

[avitus]

Just for the records, what is the name of resort? And how is the selection?

[lorettaboy]

Grand Aston Cayo Peredon. Selection is so-so. I just ran the barcodes from the box through the authenticator on the Habanos website. They are indeed fakes.

 

[KCCubano]

5 hours ago, lorettaboy said:

Grand Aston Cayo Peredon. Selection is so-so. I just ran the barcodes from the box through the authenticator on the Habanos website. They are indeed fakes.

Based on the recent video review of this cigar it sounds like you are better off with fakes! 

[TacoSauce]

4 minutes ago, KCCubano said:

Based on the recent video review of this cigar it sounds like you are better off with fakes! 

Quite possibly. The wrappers on the purported fakes above look waaaaaaaaaay better than the wrappers in the pic @lorettaboy uploaded.

[NSXCIGAR]

This could be within the spectrum of band variations. Just looks like too light of an embossing. Probably the press set too high for that run. That alone wouldn't be conclusive of a fake. 

[Rushman]

Sorry to say sir but the embossed coins are all wrong. I’m calling them fake. Here are photos of mine from my humidor. Much much more detail.

 

[El Presidente]

Rush, embossing is all over the place on CC's. It is a guide but certainly not definitive. 

However, if the embossing is off and it doesn't verify through serial authentication (HSA) ......then two anomalies certainly cast serious doubts. 

[Chas.Alpha]

I’ve had embossed bands that were similarly smashed down, usually on Upmann. We’re faking 3 packs now?…😳

[Fugu]

If I may still offer my opinion, although the case appears to be solved - the bands on the Wide Churchills shown by the OP are very clearly not authentic. While is is true that the embossing in WC and also in SC can be very faint, even that faint embossing still will always be a reproduction of the original motifs. Whereas the displayed one here is all wrong. It’s a trial to mimic a worn out embossing die. Which went sideways. The motif doesn’t represent the true one.

Plus, there is more to it than simply the embossing of the medals (even visually determinable from the (exceptionally good 👍) pics - gold bronze pigment wrong, typeface with ‘deviations’...).

On 2/16/2024 at 3:06 AM, lorettaboy said:

I just ran the barcodes from the box through the authenticator on the Habanos website. They are indeed fakes.

Which “barcode” did you use? There is no HSA barcode of use on a 3-pack. The truncated one you find in the mini warranty seal in petacas is a “fantasy” code taken from other products. It won’t return meaningful results when completed with the preceding zeros. There’s no way (at least not for the customer - maybe Habanos is able to... 😄) to authenticate a single petaca with the HSA-system as long as you don’t have access to the original 15-ct box with the original warranty seal. A code from a petaca seal returning ‘false’ in the authenticity check is not indicative of non-authentic product!

[TacoSauce]

6 minutes ago, Fugu said:

Which “barcode” did you use? There is no HSA barcode of use on a 3-pack. The truncated one you find in the mini warranty seal in petacas is a “fantasy” code taken from other products. It won’t return meaningful results when completed with the preceding zeros. There’s no way (at least not for the customer - maybe Habanos is able to... 😄) to authenticate a single petaca with the HSA-system as long as you don’t have access to the original 15-ct box with the original warranty seal. A code from a petaca seal returning ‘false’ in the authenticity check is not indicative of non-authentic product!

Good info! I was surprised that nobody else chimed in with this insight earlier. Folks on this board need to go back to Habanos school! 🤣

[Li Bai]

2 hours ago, TacoSauce said:

Good info! I was surprised that nobody else chimed in with this insight earlier. Folks on this board need to go back to Habanos school! 🤣

Tbh I assumed OP had the whole 15 count box, although it's not shown in the picture, otherwise of course you can't check a code which is not on the petaca.

[gormag38]

On 2/15/2024 at 10:00 PM, NSXCIGAR said:

This could be within the spectrum of band variations. Just looks like too light of an embossing

This was my first thought. I've had sticks purchased directly from our host that have had embossing or alignment issues. Certainly not outside the norm for cc's. Not saying they are legit sticks, but just saying that you can't call them out on that alone. 

 

19 hours ago, Fugu said:

There is no HSA barcode of use on a 3-pack.

Also key here. @lorettaboy what number are you entering into the Habanos checker? The only way you would have access to the SN is if you had the outer cardboard box with the large green seal. The barcodes on the back of the package you have pictured will do nothing for you.