This is information the tobacco companies DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE.

Although 10 years old, this guide clearly illustrates the deliberately confusing manner by which the tobacco companies "code-date" their products.

The reason being that if you don't know how old or stale the product is that you are purchasing, you will purchase it.

These coding methods have not changed.

If you learn the code, as a smoker, and you purchase only the "freshest" cartons in any retail outlet, the backlog of outdated and stale cartons of cigarettes would stretch to the moon.