Edgeworth Sliced -- Vintage Tin Opening (PICS)

Thanks to misterlowercase, I recently sampled some vintage Edgeworth Sliced from several decades ago. I wonder what it was like fresh, but the sample I had was very molasses forward with good burley flavor. It was much like a cross between Edgeworth Ready Rubbed Match (Altadis) and Wessex Burley Slice. Good stuff. Thanks, again, misterlowercase!
At about the same time as I received that sample, I was able to purchase a sealed, vintage tin on ebay. I just opened it up a few minutes ago and while completely dry, the slices were perfectly preserved. I'll get to the rehydration later this evening, but I may try some "as is" and see how it smokes. What appears to be mold is just tobacco dust and perhaps some dust from the yellow wrapper. Otherwise the tobacco is in good shape. In any case, the pictures:

After hearing what others have said about their own experiences with old, dried out tobacco, I put some in a small pipe and fired it up. It actually burned very cool and the flavor and room note were straight-up burley with a touch of molasses. No off flavors at all. I plan to rehydrate some of it and see how that affects the smoke -- some vintage tobacco aficionados swear that rehydrated tobacco is little different from fully preserved tobacco, but I'm skeptical. I suspect some flavor elements are lost for good. Here's Neill Archer Roan's take on it:

http://www.apassionforpipes.com/neills-blog/2011/2/22/how-to-rehydrate-tobacco-successfully.html

We know from the tax stamp, series 124, that the tin is from 1954!
The tin I had was 1960-74, they stopped the tax stamps in 1960, mine didn't have an image of DeWitt Clinton, only the 1.5oz. text and the letters LB in a diamond.

Click to expand...

In all my research on this (c. 10 minutes worth), I couldn't find a date for the stamp. Thanks for finding that. So...that tobacco is nearly 60 years old. My dad was 6 when this tin hit the shelves. Pretty cool.

samcoffeeman, I just watched your vid. That tobacco looked awesome! Much darker and fresher looking than mine. Did you ever end up posting about it on the Forums, here?

UPDATE 5/27:
Well, my lovely tin of Edgeworth Sliced turned out to be a bust. Upon rehydrating, the smell of mold, mustiness and mildew became more and more obvious. While the tobacco in the tin was totally dry and free from visible mold, the smell of the rhydrated tobacco said otherwise. Even worse, it just plain stank. Oh well, it was fun to play around with and I've got this really purdy tin that has "many handy uses" (preserving tobacco not being one of them).

docwatson, Interesting question. In fact, I tried some dry, before rehydrating, and it tasted like an old-timey burley (albeit very, very dry). Do you think something on the tobacco bloomed into nastiness during the rehydration process? Admittedly, I probably rushed things and tried to rehydrate too fast.