Stolen Throne owner Richard “Lee” Marsh released his company’s first cigar, the Crook of the Crown, in May of 2019, and found immediate success. Since then, the firm has traced an arc of surprising growth for a relative newcomer—in reputation more than sheer numbers sold.
Stolen Throne is what the industry terms a “hot” brand. Marsh, previously a government contractor, assiduous budgeter and successful investor, one day found himself possessed of the resources to chase a dream and gamble on founding Stolen Throne. “Luckily,” Marsh says, “the company took off right away.”
This fall Marsh, now 37 years old, is celebrating 10 years of marriage to his wife Samantha, with whom he is raising two young children (a boy and a girl) in Yorktown, Virginia, which is where Stolen Throne has its headquarters, warehouse and distributing center.
Marsh met his Estelí manufacturer Noel Rojas by the grace of a knowledgeable acquaintance. “In my travels I was spending a lot of time in cigar lounges,” he says, “You know, this industry feels bigger than it is. Everyone knows everybody. And so, I was in Pittsburgh at Leaf & Bean with ‘Island Jim’ Robinson—he was actually the first person who ever called me a cigar nerd—and I was talking to him about my aspirations and what I wanted to do. And he was the one who suggested to me that I call on Noel Rojas.”
Based on that recommendation, Marsh wasted no time phoning up Rojas at his Dallas, Texas office. “I was already aware of some of Noel’s work with boutique brands. Anyway, we had one phone call, and I told him, okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” somewhat to Rojas’s surprise. Marsh caught the first available flight. “That was 2017ish, I think. We hit it off right away. I had met some other manufacturers, but Noel was the first who showed a willingness to give me full control of my product—blending, tobacco selection, the full compass of inputs that go into making a cigar. If Stolen Throne was ever going to fail, I wanted it to be because of choices we made at Stolen Throne, not anyone else.”
Marsh was always mindful that, no matter how welcoming the cigar industry may be, he was not to the tobacco empire born. So, as something of an industry gatecrasher, he self-consciously wanted it made clear that his brand would be authentic and transparent, never pretending to be anything it was not. “I mean, I’m from Baltimore, man,” he admits with a smile. “There’s no Spanish ties in me whatsoever.” Thus the Stolen Throne company name: In an industry where some (a very few) operators might look askance at newly emerging competition, Marsh’s firm, rising out of the Virginia Tidewater, was self-aware in its need to seize a place at the table. Stolen Throne seemed the ideal play on words to express that sentiment.
Marsh is not a man given to half measures. When he goes in, he goes all-in. “I do my best to put my best foot forward in everything,” he says. “I always believed in what we were doing and how we were doing it. What I don’t think I realized was how quickly things could happen. Like, if you’d asked me if I thought we would be successful, my default answer was going to be yes because I’ve never been out-worked, never been afraid to face the rough stuff and deal with tough situations that can arise. But if you had told me that in six years we would be where we are now, that would be hard to believe.”
Beyond working hard and believing in himself, it is a central fact that Marsh brings to market superlative products. Just check the reviews of his cigars for evidence (including our review of his 3 Kingdoms Robusto in the pages that immediately follow). He is quick to note that there are a lot of good cigar brands that never quite make it, but he adds, “If you ask our retailers, they’ll tell you what makes us different. We don’t treat anyone as just a transaction. It’s a relationship. We still have the majority of the accounts we started this company with.”
Today, the growing Stolen Throne footprint occupies space on the shelves of more than 300 retailers nationwide, and in a number of countries overseas, although the company’s growth rate is somewhat constrained by availability. Marsh knows that it would never do to have a back-order situation with an established customer while at the same time he is trying to supply numerous new accounts. “That wouldn’t be fair to our customers,” he says.
The Stolen Throne lineup is the very soul of simplicity—five lines, each offered in two vitolas (a robusto, and one other size). The company’s big seller is still its original release, the Crook of the Crown, a medium-bodied maduro available in robusto and toro. Other Stolen Throne cigars bring wrappers that range from Sumatra to Habano Oscuro to Habano Claro, so most palates will find something suited to taste. Per-stick MSRPs range from $10 to $11, and retailers can expect very favorable wholesale rates. Inquiries can be submitted via the company’s contact page on its website stolenthronecigars.com, or you can email Marsh directly at Lee@StolenThroneCigars.com or company director of sales Phil Hartnett at fill@StolenThroneCigars.com.
Marsh keeps his production numbers close to the vest. “I don’t believe in a numbers game,” he says. “To me, the word boutique has more to do with attention to product and customer, and the approach we take to those. We are making and selling more cigars now than we ever have. But not to the extent that our approach to quality and to relationships gets compromised. As long as our cigars perform—they draw correctly, they burn correctly—I can live with the fact that not every one of these cigars will please everybody. But they seem to be pleasing enough folks. That means a lot, not only to me, but to every one of the 300 or so people involved with bringing our cigars to market, from farm to factory to distribution.”
In its way, Stolen Throne is an old-fashioned story of a dream pursued and hard work paying off. Now more than ever, we can all use a story like that as an example from which to draw inspiration.
– Photo of Lee Marsh by Phil Hartnett / Other photos courtesy of Stolen Throne. Story by William C. Nelson.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 3, 2025. To receive a copy of this magazine, you must be a current PCA member. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.