Are these Cuban "diplomatic/ presidencia/ special" cigars real?

[Marco_011t556]

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Recently and suddenly, I have seen quite some photos of diplomatic/presidencia cigars in some groups...these cigars make me curious.

I don't  know why so many diplomatic/presidencia cigars appeared lately (I haven't seen so many half year ago).

Can anyone share any insight? I know diplomatic/presidencia cigars are not myth, but I doubt if they can produce/leak out such huge volume. Anyone care to share any insight as to how to check the authenticity of these cigars? 

[BrightonCorgi]

All of the King of Spain banded cigars I have smoked/owned were straight from Cuba, FWIW. 

[Marco_011t556]

18 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

All of the King of Spain banded cigars I have smoked/owned were straight from Cuba, FWIW. 

Thanks mate! Can you share any photos/tasting notes?

[BrightonCorgi]

18 hours ago, Marco_011t556 said:

Thanks mate! Can you share any photos/tasting notes?

They are regular Cohiba with a different band.

[Marco_011t556]

18 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

They are regular Cohiba with a different band.

LOL, nice sharing, thx!

[Puros Y Vino]

King Of Spain CCEs rolled at El Laguito. (Nov 2012)

[Puros Y Vino]

I have a selection of these myself.  The green band is known as the "Palma Reale" from what I've heard, they are applied to cigars destined for Diplomatic humidor gifts.

[ATGroom]

One of the very few totally confirmed high level diplomatic gifts I have ever seen: https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/montecristo-humidor-cigars/

Just some regular production Montes in a pretty ordinary humidor. That's what real diplomatic gifts look like.

[Puros Y Vino]

17 hours ago, ATGroom said:

One of the very few totally confirmed high level diplomatic gifts I have ever seen: https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/montecristo-humidor-cigars/

Just some regular production Montes in a pretty ordinary humidor. That's what real diplomatic gifts look like.

You just reminded me of something.  Many years ago someone contacted me via PM on reddit. He had inherited a humidor with cigars. His mother married an Colombian diplomat and she passed this along to him when he died (or when she died - can't remember). Apparently, this diplomat wrote a book on Simon Bolivar. 

I put him in contact with a few people. Ultimately, he had it authenticated as Cuban by an LCDH in Belgium(IIRC) and it auctioned off. For my "trouble" he ensured that one of the cigars made it to me. Here's some pics he sent me. The last pic is a closeup of the band in my possession.

[BrightonCorgi]

@Puros Y Vino Do you know how much the humidor was auctioned for? Did you smoke the cigar?

[Puros Y Vino]

16 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

@Puros Y Vino Do you know how much the humidor was auctioned for?  Did you smoke the cigar?

IIRC $12K. I have not smoked it yet. They're from the early 1970's according to the seller. Maybe last 1960's. I don't recognize the seal on the band. There's a chance it may not be Cuban. But the LCDH folks said the humidor itself was similar to other Cuban humidors of the era. 

[Marco_011t556]

18 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

King Of Spain CCE's rolled at El Laguito. (Nov 2012)

Looks tasty lol

17 hours ago, ATGroom said:

One of the very few totally confirmed high level diplomatic gifts I have ever seen: https://diplomacy.state.gov/items/montecristo-humidor-cigars/

Just some regular production Montes in a pretty ordinary humidor. That's what real diplomatic gifts look like.

I smelled some of “diplomatic gift” cigar (not burned), quite alike bhk flavour.

16 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

You just reminded me of something. Many years ago someone contacted me via PM on reddit. He had inherited a humidor with cigars. His mother married an Colombian diplomat and she passed this along to him when he died (or when she died - can't remember). Apparently, this diplomat wrote a book on Simon Bolivar. 

I put him in contact with a few people. Ultimately, he had it authenticated as Cuban by an LCDH in Belgium(IIRC) and it auctioned off. For my "trouble" he ensured that one of the cigars made it to me. Here's some pics he sent me. The last pic is a closeup of the band in my possession.

This is great!! I wish I were contacted lol. I should buy it!

[Puros Y Vino]

10 hours ago, Marco_011t556 said:

This is great!! I wish I were contacted lol. I should buy it!

Lol. You're about 10 years too late.

[Fugu]

16 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

They're from the early 1970's according to the seller. Maybe last 1960's. I don't recognize the seal on the band. There's a chance it may not be Cuban. But the LCDH folks said the humidor itself was similar to other Cuban humidors of the era.

That's the Coat of Arms of Colombia or a version thereof (fitting to your story)...Just looked it up, and Indalecio Liévano was Minister of Foreign Affairs to Colombia ("Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores") from August 1974 to Sept 1978. So likely the cigars are from that period. To me, this rather looks like a sort of commissioned cigar made for him, rather than a diplomatic gift. If Cuban, the box should bear at least a hint towards it (bottom perhaps?).

[Puros Y Vino]

9 hours ago, Fugu said:

That's the Coat of Arms of Colombia or a version thereof (fitting to your story)...Just looked it up, and Indalecio Liévano was Minister of Foreign Affairs to Colombia ("Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores") from August 1974 to Sept 1978. So likely the cigars are from that period. To me, this rather looks like a sort of commissioned cigar made for him, rather than a diplomatic gift. If Cuban, the box should bear at least a hint towards it (bottom perhaps?).

Good eye. I'll post the rest of the pics I have later. No clear markings such as Hecho en Cuba but perhaps the build details might give a clue.

[Arabian]

Iraqi Bands. There’s a newer version but it seems fake Cohiba bands. 

[Puros Y Vino]

Here's the rest of the pics. Thoughts?

[Marco_011t556]

7 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

Here's the rest of the pics. Thoughts?

Looks beautiful, first time seeing these.

[Edicion]

18 hours ago, Marco_011t556 said:

Saw these on IG and it said they were made for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) .

There's a few threads here on FOH about similar custom cigars. The KSA all seem to have the palm tree logo albeit in different colours. Being Behikes is possible given how much money they have, should not be an issue having these custom made. KSA (any) is one of my holy grail cigars I'd like to try one day. 

Above there's Iraqi cigars, made for Saddam's sons. I've read about them before here or elsewhere. 

There's probably many more high end gift editions or custom orders, special bands etc out there, but more difficult to say if they are authentic as they are simply not documented in the same way as other productions are. 

[ATGroom]

-King of Spain banded Lanceros are essentially custom bands for a well connected individual. Not 'diplomatic gifts' per se. They are sold in Cuba because people steal the bands. Whether they put them on real Lanceros, fakes, custom rolls, etc, the whole point of these cigars are that they are a momento from your meeting with the King of Spain, so if you didn't receive them from him then they are fakes in my opinion.

-KSA banded cigars are custom rolls privately commissioned from Cuban rollers by an individual in Saudi Arabia who puts his own bands and packaging on them. They are not factory cigars or diplomatic gifts. He uses a logo based on the national symbol of Saudi Arabia which incorporates a palm tree, but they are not associated with the 'Palm Tree band.'

-The Palm Tree band is supposedly the 'diplomatic gift' band. There is one in a display of bands at El Laguito. I've never seen it used on any actual authenticated diplomatic gift. Same goes for the Presidencia band.

-Saddam / Uday Hussein bands. Vanity bands like this are known to be given occasionally to people as part of gifts from Habanos / Cuban government etc. Iraq was friendly enough with Cuba during the 80s and 90s and there were several documented diplomatic visits between the countries. Whether the Hussein bands / double Lanceros are diplomatic gifts,  private commissions, or total fakes - impossible to say.

-The Indalecio Liévano banded humidor above. Never seen these before. I agree with Fugu that it looks like a private commission - I would expect it to have Cuba on it somewhere if it was a diplomatic gift. No idea how an LCDH or anybody would be able to 'authenticate' something like this. I would need to see some photos or documentation of it when it was originally presented and to know the whole story.

-The cigars in the original post in this thread: total fakes in my opinion. I've seen many, many variations of these over the years. Fantasy cigars. Real diplomatic gifts don't look like this.

[Marco_011t556]

3 hours ago, ATGroom said:

-King of Spain banded Lanceros are essentially custom bands for a well connected individual. Not 'diplomatic gifts' per se. They are sold in Cuba because people steal the bands. Whether they put them on real Lanceros, fakes, custom rolls, etc, the whole point of these cigars are that they are a momento from your meeting with the King of Spain, so if you didn't receive them from him then they are fakes in my opinion.

-KSA banded cigars are custom rolls privately commissioned from Cuban rollers by an individual in Saudi Arabia who puts his own bands and packaging on them. They are not factory cigars or diplomatic gifts. He uses a logo based on the national symbol of Saudi Arabia which incorporates a palm tree, but they are not associated with the 'Palm Tree band.'

-The Palm Tree band is supposedly the 'diplomatic gift' band. There is one in a display of bands at El Laguito. I've never seen it used on any actual authenticated diplomatic gift. Same goes for the Presidencia band.

-Saddam / Uday Hussein bands. Vanity bands like this are known to be given occasionally to people as part of gifts from Habanos / Cuban government etc. Iraq was friendly enough with Cuba during the 80s and 90s and there were several documented diplomatic visits between the countries. Whether the Hussein bands / double Lanceros are diplomatic gifts,  private commissions, or total fakes - impossible to say.

-The Indalecio Liévano banded humidor above. Never seen these before. I agree with Fugu that it looks like a private commission - I would expect it to have Cuba on it somewhere if it was a diplomatic gift. No idea how an LCDH or anybody would be able to 'authenticate' something like this. I would need to see some photos or documentation of it when it was originally presented and to know the whole story.

-The cigars in the original post in this thread: total fakes in my opinion. I've seen many, many variations of these over the years. Fantasy cigars. Real diplomatic gifts don't look like this.

Thx Alex! Such a knowledgeable and detailed description.

[JohnnyO]

The cigars in the original thread are too dark/oily for the average Cohiba. If I remember correctly Nino many years ago said these boxes were accompanied with an official letter. The Palm tree band was used by a character by the name of Tripple Ligero or TL to fake Diplomatic cigars that were regular production TTT and Cohiba cigars 2011-ish and later just all out fakes. Brooks Whitington did a review of these at Halfwheel 4/1/13.  John 

[Puros Y Vino]

1 hour ago, JohnnyO said:

The cigars in the original thread are too dark/oily for the average Cohiba. If I remember correctly Nino many years ago said these boxes were accompanied with an official letter. The Palm tree band was used by a character by the name of Tripple Ligero or TL to fake Diplomatic cigars that were regular production TTT cigars 2011-ish. He duped a lot of BOTL's for thousands. John 

Would like to hear more about that Palm band and the associated "releases" and uses of them. 

[99call]

On 7/17/2024 at 10:23 AM, Puros Y Vino said:

Thoughts

The internal side of the lid and compartment lids look like they were sawn yesterday. The rest of the Humidor looks legit and period. But to me this looks like a bit of a chop shop.

[MossybackR]

Screams fake.