Is this a fake?

Imgembo · April 2013

This cigar was given to me about a year and a half ago by a guy i met at a conference in Las Vegas. Im no expert on ISOM and do not know how to tell by the band so i am asking your opinions. If its real then awesome I have a nicely aging cigar. If not, then at least it was free and all it cost me was minimal space in my humi and I will have to pick a different smoke for my wedding day. My concern come from the fact that this thing looks rough as hell, and i remember thinking this when the gent gave it to me. However, it is a hand made product and as such that is bound to happen does not mean it will taste bad.

Imgembo · April 2013

May have answered my own question. The same guy that gifted me this gifted me a behike which I smoked along with him and another conference goer. I remember the cigar being good ( i was new to smoking at the time) but it was my first experience with ISOM tobacco so i had ( and still have ) no idea what to expect from it. Went back and looked at the band and compared it to the gallery on another website. The band from mine is clearly fake. Stamped head hologram and no black boarder around the head. Owell wish i knew where the guy got is stuff so i can avoid it. Any other insights are welcome to the one posted above but based on the other cigar gifted to me this one is most likely a fake

Gray4lines · April 2013

That sucks... and I guess some "fakes" can be ok tasting...may be some other cigar with bands switched. Scary how they even fooled the guy who gifted it to you when he even smokes them and cant tell.