Abstract: A hard-box, hinge-lid package of 25 cigarettes may be provided without attendant prior art problems by separating the cigarettes into two distinct bundles, each of which is laterally confined by foil paper with the cigarettes in each bundle being arranged in three parallel rows in which the front and rear rows of each contain the same number of cigarettes and the center row contains one less cigarette than the other rows, and each cigarette in the center row engages two cigarettes in each of the front and rear rows, so that there is a cigarette located at each corner of each bundle.