D.C. CIGAR GROUP @ GO TIME EVENT W/ MARC SEE & DON COLLINS CIGARS

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DON COLLINS CHAIR PRTC

DON COLLINS, CHAIR PRTC MAKER OF DCPR

 

Don Collins, Chairman
Puerto Rico Tobacco Corporation
(1987-Present)

DON COLLINS

There are more than a few things I'd like to say. First it is really nice to be in the world with all of you, especially in this way. My interest vary from art to music to theoretical physics (see http://www.don-collins.com/) and I have a great curiousity about you.

And second, after all these years of success, I have to share with you the simple fact that the only thing I really remember is the almost unbearably hard work it took to rebuild this company.

What you find out here may not be all that novel but every word will be unique in that these words originate from a well of sincerity that belongs to us all.

Tobacco has a bad reputation right now. We have identified several blends of tobacco that are better than cuban cigars. No need to give tobacco another black eye by supporting cuba, a state that supports terrorism. Search Twitter #QBAN or take a few minutes and browse through this blog for some tokens of real wisdom on the subject.

You will also find here an unlimited set of resources that you can goto and read and make up your own mind with facts "from the horses mouth". Stay informed, spend your dollars to the best effect. Get a good cigar, don't go after an image cigar that turns out to be fake almost 100% of the time.

You will also find some very interesting historical details about PRTC, DCPR, our Coffee and our Rum. I think that if you are a careful cigar aficionado you will find this blog fits your taste perfectly ~ no pun intended!

DON COLINS

Biographical Data

Mr. Collins was born in Manhattan, New York. Manhattan Public School Number 135 on 5^th Avenue was the assigned area school. He went to Kindergarten there but had moved to the suburbs of New York by the time first grade began, later attending St. Gerard Magellan Catholic Church and School and graduating to Bishop Edmund J. Reilly Diocesan High School of Queens, New York.  After graduating high school he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree at Lincoln University, a small religious school in Pennsylvania. Later academic work yielded an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, Maryland in 1971. Respect for general order in society led Mr. Collins to study at Atlanta Law School at Atlanta, Georgia.  

It should be noted that Mr. Collins is an avid sportsman and won good standing with the track, swimming, football and gymnastics teams in high school and college. Today Mr. Collins enjoys daily activities in swimming, tennis and golf. He also enjoys theoretical physics and has made significant contributions to the field.  

Mr. Collins began his career by teaching Medical Terminology and Algebra at Washington Technical Institute, Washington, DC. during May of 1971 at the age of 20. Over the next few years Mr. Collins taught several other college level subjects in different areas of the country: Saint Augustine’s College, NC.; Clark College; Spelman College; Morehouse College; Morris Brown College, all of Atlanta, Georgia, then the City University of New York, NY. and New York City Community College.  

Mr. Collins is President of the Board of Directors of Puerto Rico Tobacco Corporation. He exercises oversight of an international tobacco corporation. His current goal is to firmly establish the historical value of the corporation.

From 1986 until 2001 Mr. Collins worked as Financial Analyst and Advisor in the Capital Market Sectors for the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico. He was involved in the development, design and ratings of bond issues, government obligations and investment portfolios.

He was Financial Advisor to the Executive Vice President of the Bank. Mr. Collins worked with various government teams to enact bond and tax credit legislation effecting federal and commonwealth housing programs, Caribbean basin securities programs, pension and retirement funds, investment regulations for tax exemptions, industrial revenue bonds and military installations. During his career Mr. Collins participated in over 80 billion dollars of successfully financed transactions. 

Prior to that time Mr. Collins worked with several of the most prominent law firms in New York City. He was an investment advisor at Shereff, Friedman, Hoffman and Goodman, NY, New York. He developed and maintained private trust funds with asset management responsibilities. Mr. Collins played an important role in the development of Senate SEC and NASD legislation for security registration matters.

A few years earlier Mr. Collins had worked with Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley & Casey, NY, New York. Mr. Collins did extensive work with Development Bank of Israel and he managed the overseas gas and oil interest for the Government of Israel.  He handled the M&A closing administration for Metro Media Five (Channel 5), the Rockefeller Trust, Gloria Vanderbilt, the New York Corporation, the Development Corporation for Israel, Armond Hammer International, and certain matters for Federated Department Stores.

Even earlier, Mr. Collins worked with Debevoise & Plimpton, NY New York. He was responsible for the transfer of client matters from the law firm of Gaston & Snow, Weil Gothshal & Manges to specific placement in the law firm of Mudge Rose. The business transferred included bankruptcy, REIT documentation, commercial real estate closings; gas and oil clearances for foreign countries.

Mr. Collins was  President of The Select Publishing Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia, where he produced a number of academic text books: From Ancient Africa To Ancient Greece: An Introduction to the History of Philosophy by Dr. Henry Olela. Editor and Publisher. Select Publishing Corporation Academic Textbook 1981; Black Arts & Black Aesthetics, Dr. Carolyn Fowler, First World Publishing, Academic Textbook 1981; My Cup Runneth Over by Margaret Bowers, Select Publishing Corporation Poetry 1979; Survival, by Haroum Black, Select Publishing Corporation, Non-fiction 1979; Great Plays of the World, by Dr. Muchuka Arturo Padin, Select Publishing Corporation. Literature 1978; The Kingdom of God, by Hudson John Meyers, Esq. Select Publishing Corporation. Religion & Philosophy 1976; The Catalyst, for Morehouse College, Select Publishing Corporation, Atlanta, Ga. Poetry, essays, poetry fiction and non-fiction. 1975. 

Finally Mr. Collins belongs to and remains as active as possible in the following associations: American Association of Retired Persons; Atlanta Law School Alumni Association; CoCo Beach Golf Club, Puerto Rico; Bishop Reilly Alumni Association; Capital Apprecitation Trust; Cigar Association of America; Encantada Homeowners Association; Friends of Tobacco; Johns Hopkins Univsersity Alumni Association; Knights of Columbus, Corpus Christi Church, Altanta, Ga.; La Piedad Catholic Confraternity, Isla Verde, Puerto Rico; Lincoln University Alumni Association; Masters National Swimming League; National Geographic Society; Navy Flying Club, Roosevelt Roads Naval Station; Navy League of the United States, Eastern Puerto Rico Council; Puerto Rico Center for Higher Arts; Puerto Rico Golf Association; Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association; Puerto Rico Museum of Art, contributing member; Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, contributing member; Puerto Rico Tobacco Corporation, board chairperson; Residents Association of Rio Cristal; Rio Cristal Residents Association Rotary Club International; United States Golf Association; and the young Men’s Christian Association.

“I believe that it is my obligation to make all the money I can,

                Honestly and fairly…

     I know that it is my responsibility to save and keep all the money I can,

           For the sake of myself and my family…

        I feel a duty to give away all the money I can,

       Sensibly, for the sake of my friends, my country and my world.”

Don Collins

SCAN FOR FREE PRIZE

Posted 15th June 2010 by Don Collins

THE ORIGIN OF THE CIGAR BOX by DCPR

THE CIGAR BOX

www.don-collins.com

1 866 977-2983 (toll free)

By Don Collins

 

THE ALL IMPORTANT DCPR LAQUERED CEDAR BOX

DCPR cigars are made by Puerto Rico Tobacco Corporation. PRTC is the oldest company in the world that makes a cigar. Early on after the amalgamation of caribbean cigar companies under the flag of the Puerto Rico Tobacco Products Corporation the first Cedar Boxes were made for cigars. Cedar Boxes had the reliable advantage of perfect humidification. All cigars, in the beginning, were shipped by sea and like all agricultural products were marked with a large stamp that said SHIT (Ship High In Transit). Remember the sides of the ships in those days were swamped all day with ocean spray and waves.

 

Most of the cigars were packed in paper bundles and saved inside burlap bags and then put into wood crates. The crates were loosely jointed and allowed insects (mainly the tobacco mite) and fungus and viruses to flourish during the two to three month journey to the warehouses in America and from six to ten months on journeys to Europe.

 

The Puerto Rico Tobacco Products Corporation determined that more product would be viable upon arrival at its destination if individually boxed for transpoprtation in Wooden Boxes. These early cedar boxes were made from the trees in Cidra, Puerto Rico. And, wouldn't you know that these trees are the original forest that gave birth to Spanish Cedar in Spain!

 

The almost airtight, insect proof, naturally humidifying cedar was the first wood used and prevails today as the base for the best cigar boxes in the world. Finishes vary, but PRTC has found that the most attractive is the natural cedar wood with a coat of laquer to ensure moisture proof storage over long periods of time. The boxes have changed little since the beginning.

 

 

 

FAKE CUBANS ALL OVER THE WORLD

Original post by: Don Collins 

FAKE CUBAN CIGARS

Most of you have heard of or looked for a cuban cigar. The supply has dropped almost as low as the quality on most cubans. And, unfortunately, the greater majority of "cubans" are fakes. They are being pushed in local markets, slick looking websites that carry photos of real boxes but provide fake cigars by the stick and so on. Caveat emptor ! The wrapper leaves on a real cuban cigar should be WWII army green more so than brown. In any case the color should be perfectly uniform from top to bottom and all the way around. There should be no "sunspots" moldy areas or any imperfection in the ring seal. The smell is most important. Good cigars smell like a vagina. Plain and simple. The musty smell comes about in a precision curing process where amonia is not allowed to accumulate. There is no "sting" to the smell, no "peppery smell" and there is no harsh taste to a real cuban. Authentic cuban cigars are smoother than a cigarette. Any cigar that has a harsh taste, after taste, burns or coats your tongue has been sprayed with chemicals for preservation, anti-funfals, anti-virus, tobacco flavors, tobacco mites or weavils and similar problems. Here are a few cigars I have been sent that are fakes. Beware of any website that has really clear photos of the boxes but images the actual cigar in a half shadow or where the ring and tobacco are out of focus and blurry. Come on guys, wake up !