I looked back on this thread and I see what you mean. Some pics look all white, others seem to not have the gold on the side. I've got edmundos, Petit edmundos, #4s and a sample Petit robusto, all probably less than 2 years old and all have the gold. Not sure when or why it's different.
Found this on an article on Holt's in 2019
"THE BAND
Right now, the cigar band on the Montecristo is brown. It has squiggly gold lines. The lines are bordered by white lines. The gold fleur-de-lis (a symbol of French royalty, as in The Count of Monte Cristo) is in the middle of the band, with “Montecristo” on top, “Habana” on the bottom, with white dots on both sides"
Which seems to match my newer ones.