Antique 1890s-1900s Acme Cubana Cigar Bag Label 🚬 D.S. Erb & Co. Boyertown Pennsylvania, Patented 1898 NOS

Who Made Acme Cubana Cigars? 🚬 D.S. Erb & Co. of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and a Pocket Patented in 1898

Size: 5" x 1 1/2"

Picture a tobacconist's counter around 1900: a box of cigars open on the glass, and beside it a stack of these bright yellow paper pockets, ready to slip two cigars in for a customer on his way out the door. "Acme Cubana" in flowing script, a big interlocked monogram, "Registered by D.S. Erb & Co." and the price right on the front: 2 for 15¢. That's the whole sales pitch, and I love how confident it is.

This is an original, never-used Acme Cubana cigar pocket from Erb's Boyertown cigar works. Turn it over and there's a yellow band across the kraft-paper back printed "PATENTED FEBY. 1-1898," the date the pocket design itself was patented.

📦 What It Is, Exactly

It's a paper cigar bag, or pocket: a kraft-paper sleeve with a printed yellow wrap, made to hold a couple of cigars across the counter. These were made in perforated strips of three pleated pockets and torn off one at a time, and you can see the perforated edge where this one came off its neighbors. Because they were made to be used up, carried home and thrown away, unused ones are the survivors.

🏘️ Boyertown, Pennsylvania, a Cigar Town

Boyertown is a small Berks County borough, and for a stretch of years it was cigar country. David S. Erb started his cigar business there in 1864, as the Keystone Cigar Company, and the firm put up a three-story factory building in 1882 on the corner of Philadelphia and Reading Avenues. Erb's best-known brand was Castle Hall, and the company was still making cigars into the 1930s. The Castle Hall name lives on today on cigars sold by other makers.

Old-timers in Berks County used to say that in Boyertown's peak years the whole town smelled like a tobacco warehouse, a smell people who grew up there never forgot and never quite found anywhere else. Pennsylvania rolled more cigars than almost anywhere in the country back then, and towns like Boyertown were why.

📜 The Name and the Cuban Question

In the 1890s, Havana cigars sat at the top of the American tobacco ladder. Leaf from Cuba's Vuelta Abajo, rolled by expert hands, was what serious smokers wanted, and American cigar makers reached for Cuban-sounding names to borrow a little of that shine. Cubana, Habana, Havana: the names piled up on American boxes no matter what leaf was inside. Acme Cubana fits right into that tradition, and the registration line on the front tells you the name was Erb's own brand.

The 1898 on the back is a fun coincidence with history. That was the year of the Spanish-American War, when Cuba's colonial tie to Spain came apart and Cuba was suddenly front-page news across the country. A Cuban-named cigar in a pocket patented that February was right in step with the moment.

📅 How Old It Is

The patent line gives the floor: this pocket design was patented on February 1, 1898, so the piece is no earlier than that. I put these in the 1890s-1900s, the turn of the century. Duke University's Rubenstein Library keeps Acme Cubana labels from D.S. Erb & Co. in its Richard Pollay tobacco advertising collection, catalogued to 1898, some joined together in strips with the patent date on the back, just like this one.

🖼️ Display and Collecting

The tall, narrow shape frames beautifully: a slim frame with a cream mat lets that warm yellow glow, and it looks right at home in a den, a study or a tobacco-themed corner. Pair it with other Berks County or Pennsylvania tobacco pieces, like cigar bands, box labels and trade cards, and you've got the start of a regional collection that tells the story of Pennsylvania's cigar towns.

🎁 For anyone with roots in Boyertown, Berks County or the Pennsylvania German country, it's a real piece of home: a named local maker, a printed patent date and a price you can still read.

❓ Questions Collectors Ask

Is this a cigar box label?

No, it's a cigar bag, a printed paper pocket that held a couple of cigars sold over the counter. They came in perforated strips and were torn off as needed.

How old is it?

The 1890s-1900s. The pocket design was patented February 1, 1898, which is printed on the back, so it's no earlier than that, and the patented stock fits the turn of the century.

Who was D.S. Erb?

David S. Erb founded his Boyertown, Pennsylvania cigar business in 1864. The company made the Castle Hall brand and was still in business into the 1930s.

Was Acme Cubana made with Cuban tobacco?

The name is the Cuban part for sure. In the 1890s American makers used Cuban-sounding names across the board, whatever leaf was inside, so the name was doing the selling.

What condition is it in?

New old stock, unused, with little to no wear.