Found this in a cigar

[Briandg]

that looks like a piece of gravel!

I know that during the boom and shortly afterward, it wasn't unusual for things to have stems that size all the time, sometimes more than one. I know that I smoked some really good names that even had several in them, albeit they were smaller. Just a bunch of stems stuck in the bunch to save tobacco. Just a few weeks ago, I pulled one out almost that big, and it seems that you're right, imo, there seem to be more stems in current production. Dunno.