CUBA. Honradez Royal Tobacco Factory Bronze Medal, ND (ca. 1859). PCGS SPECIMEN-58 Brown. Diameter: 57mm. Obverse: Female personification of Justice standing facing, holding scales; Reverse: Complex Cuban coat-of-arms. Red-brown overall, with a few scattered marks. Some hints of brilliance emanate from the more protected areas.<p><p><em>Cuban cigars have long been the standard bearer of a fine tobacco product, and Don Luis Susinis royal factory in Havana sought to keep that high standard through not just the firms name (</em>la honradez<em> meaning "</em>honesty<em>" or "</em>integrity<em>"), but also through what was, at the time, revolutionary packaging. Counterfeiting was commonplace and copyright protection was virtually non-existent, so Susini turned to packaging in order differentiate himself from fraudulent products, with the firm using color lithography to produce some of the worlds first colored labels.</em>
