A Short History of Cigar Box Openers

 

(National Cigar History Museum) Although cigar boxes had been around since the early 1800’s, they were not widely available in consumer sizes. Pre-1860 documents suggest only one cigar in ten was purchased in or from a consumer-size box of 25, 50 or 100.  All that changed in 1863 when the need for money to fight the Civil War resulted in a series of tax laws that mandated cigar boxes into universal use. Every cigar after that date had to be packed in and sold from a box. Those Civil War revenue laws required tax stamps to be wrapped around the box, and after 1868, added other labeling
and the provision that those stamps must be destroyed when the box was opened.  That same year, 1868, the first cigar box opener was patented. Continued