CUBA. Honradez Royal Tobacco Factory Tin Medal, ND (ca. 1859-60). PCGS SPECIMEN-65.
Diameter: 57mm; Weight: 88.15 gms. Obverse: Female personification of Justice standing facing, holding scales; Reverse: Complex Cuban coat-of-arms. The finer of just two seen at PCGS in this composition, the present Gem radiates with an immense prooflike brilliance upon each side along with a sharp, exacting strike. While we have offered some other examples of this type in the past, they have been in the more much more commonly encountered composition of bronze and in rather inferior states of preservation. For the collector of interesting and intriguing Caribbean medallic issues, it is difficult to imagine discovering one finer than what is presented here. Cuban cigars have long been the standard bearer of a fine tobacco product, and Don Luis Susini's royal factory in Havana sought to keep that high standard through not just the firm's name (la honradez meaning "honesty" or "integrity"), 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 world's first colored labels.

Estimate: $500.00- $1000.00