Dating Cigar Boxes

(National Cigar History Museum) There are two kinds of information on every cigar box:
information that is [1] optional and [2] that required by law.
Optional information includes advertising, guarantees, slogans, ingredients lists, copyright and registration dates, type of labor, type of tobacco, source of tobacco, retail price and the like. Everything optional was exactly that. Pictures were optional, Text was optional. Truth was optional. The latter was abused unmercifully by this creative and opportunistic industry.
When it came to decorating a box with claims, there were no restrictions or guidelines. Anything went. “Key West Favorite Cigars” (according to the label on the inside lid) were made by the “New York Cigar Factory” (according to a label on the bottom) but the cigar maker’s I.D. (required by law) identifies the cigars as having been made in Factory 978, 9th tax district of PA, a tiny one-man factory owned by Fred Runkle in Red Lion, the heart of the nation’s cheap cigar district. Continued

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