Why halfwheel?
The name is actually pretty simple. In factories all throughout Latin America, cigars are placed in bundles of newspaper and ribbon to the tune of 50 cigars a bunch. These bundles are known internally as media ruedas, half wheel.

Normally, the shape of the bundles is wheel like, as you can see here. The term media rueda came about as cigar factories moved from placing cigars in bunches of 100, which were known as ruedas, to bunches of 50. Factories then changed the name from wheel to half wheel.

Today, some cigars still leave the factory in traditional media ruedas, usually placed in SLB cabinets of 50.