Tobacco fraud has a long history

(New York Tribune 1881 via the National Cigar History Museum) ... The youth produces his $5 -- perhaps his employer’s money, which he hopes to replace by a profitable disposal of his purchase -- and with the cigar-boxes under his arm struts forth triumphantly. It is unnecessary to add that the delusions he nurses are quickly dispelled when in attempting to sell them in a cigar store, he is confidentially informed that they are made of choice unadulterated cabbage leaves and brown paper.
Such swindles as the above are in daily occurrence all over the city, but although they have been brought to the notice of the Police Department no measures have been taken to remedy the evil. At the present moment a concern of this kind is fleecing the passers-by in Fulton Street. Continued

See also: Bad Cigars, Dealers Purchase Inferior Stock at Big Prices

Photo: Library of Congress