>Oh yeah I remember lol. I remember people collecting empty cigarettes packs (Dunhill , Rothmans etc).
>
>Not sure if you remember these bulgarian cigarettes called BT, which were seen as a high quality cigarettes. I remember Vikend, HB, and one of my favourites, non filter cuban cigarettes "Popular".
>Marlboro was hard to get but Kent was the cigarette pack which could open many doors lol...
>
>1-2 years ago I met a US WWII airforce veteran who was POW in Romania. In 70's he went back to visit Romania. He was very surprised to find out that with Kent he could get pretty much whatever he wanted.

I once stopped by the road somewhere between Arad and Timişoara to, ahem, rest. And a huge truck stops by, and the driver comes, wanting to buy cigarettes. I didn't want to part with my own, but had a pack of the worst and cheapest I could find - which was there to give to the soldier on the checkpoint at Jimbolia. The driver bought them and was very happy, because the box was printed in gold-like color. I actually tried to smoke that once, and just threw it away... I think he didn't really buy cigarettes to smoke them, but rather to be seen with the box.