answers to AUTHENTICITY questions!!!

[Hyacinth]

Quote:

Hope this helps someone, I hate fakes!!! I saw some poor buyer win a horrible fake patchwork on ebay for $380 the other day, I reported it twice to ebay, but nothing happened.

Court, if you see something like that happening again, could you post it in the Authenticate This thread? You can still report an item after an auction is over, and sometimes Ebay will cancel a completed auction and notify the bidder to withold payment. And if several dozen people report the same auction it has a better chance of being pulled.

Also, I've heard that some Ebayers even have "sacrificial IDs" that they use to contact the winning bidder and suggest that they visit a page like this one (Yeah, it's finally pinned!) and read why the bag they won may not be genuine. Often the buyer will persuade the seller that it's better to refund the buyer's money than have the buyer report them to Ebay and file a SNAD claim and negative feedback for selling fakes.

[Bethy]

If you post fakes in the Worst Fakes thread, many people always check there and report all fakes listed. Reporting them in the Authenticate This thread will bog down the thread and make answering authenticity requests slower.

[cafire]

Thank you for starting this thread!!! Some of these things it took me quite awhile to glean from random comments in different threads, and it's great to have it consolidated here!!!

[Hyacinth]

Coach Serial Numbers

Serial numbers were introduced in the mid 70s, and every bag had its own unique serial number. These early serial numbers had 3 digits followed by 4 digits (101-9090). This changed to 4 digits followed by 3 digits in the late 80s (1010-909). In 1994 letters were introduced into serial numbers. The middle number in the first set of 3 digits indicates the year of manufacture (A7B-9990) = 1997. The serial numbers were usually hand-stamped and they used a small press with rotating wheels that they could advance to the next number in the series. Often numbers would be a bit uneven and a lot of times you can even see a horizontal spacer line or the edge of the next or previous number in the series.

(There are some early to mid 70's bags that have the Coach Creed and an obviously glued-on serial mark that was added to the bag after it was manufactured. You can see that the serial number was applied to a leather strip and then placed under the Coach Creed in these early purses. Sometimes the strip with the number would come lose or fall off leaving just a strip of bare leather where the number should be.)

The 7-number serials were phased out beginning in 1994, and replaced with an alphanumeric serial which had three digits representing the factory, year and season, and after the hyphen, the four digit code for the bag model. For example K4M-5130 would be a Station Bag (5130), made in 1994 (the number 4, in the first set). The K & M are factory and manufacturing codes. So every single Station Bag made in 1994 in that particular factory could have the identical serial number. And some popular bags were made in more than one factory so the same style number could have different prefixes on different bags.

Coach did NOT add the fourth digit in the serial prefix until it was necessary to prevent year repetition, in 2004.

Thus, the pattern goes like this: J4J = 1994, J5J = 1995, etc... then J0J = 2000, J1J = 2001, J2J = 2002, J3J = 2003, but then they go to four digits J04J = 2004, J05J = 2005, etc... So a bag made in 1996 would have a prefix of x6x-, but one made in 2006 would show x06x-.

In 2005 and 2006 even more codes were added although the year code is still in the same place in the sequence. Bags made just for the Factory Stores will now often have the letter F before the style number. Some bags such as the 2006 Legacy line can have as many as ten digits in the serial number, five on either side of the hyphen. And beginning in 2005 some style numbers began to include letters as well as numbers until Coach decided to expand the style number to five digits.

Thanks to all the posters at Ebay's Shoes And Purses forum and other boards who compiled all this great information!

[burberry4me]

ok im not good at seeing if they are fake or not, can somebody tell me if this is real. eBay: Coach hot pink genuine signature bag (item 150093469071 end time Feb-25-07 10:34:20 PST)

[Birdie81]

I see a lot of bags on ebay boasting that they are Made in Italy, and although I haven't looked through all my bags the one I'm using right now and I know is real is Made in China... is it common to have Coach purses made in Italy or is that a sign of a fraud?



Haha... sorry that was so wordy!

[Hyacinth]

Originally Posted by Birdie81

I see a lot of bags on ebay boasting that they are Made in Italy, and although I haven't looked through all my bags the one I'm using right now and I know is real is Made in China... is it common to have Coach purses made in Italy or is that a sign of a fraud? Haha... sorry that was so wordy!

Birdie - yes, it's possible but only on the older bags. You'll never see a Signature bag from Italy for instance.
In the mid and late 90s Coach made their Madisons and Bridle Bags and some of the Sheridans, Gramercys, and Sonomas in Italy, and also some of their Limited Production bags, which will usually have a second series number under the regular serial number, like this one

[cinshad]

Is this the right place to post this question? I have three coach legacy bags and they seem very close. I tried to post a photo to show an example of my question, but it said the photo exceded the mb allowed or something. There are a couple of differences in the three bags although they are the same model. I picked them up in different places over a couple of years. Their numbers are: B9N-9966 Mexico, H7D-9966 united states, C9D-9966 United States (first two are black leather and last is tan)
The differences are that the strap grommits? or little metal things that surround the hole for the buckle to go through are smooth and perfectly round in the manufactured in Mexico one and in the other two they are smooth and round from the outside and kind of corrigated on the inside. I have a photo which I will try to post again. The other difference is on one of the hang tags, it is printed with 'coach' on only one side. Are any of these differences indications of a fake?
Thanks!

[cinshad]

I think it posted. This shows the differences.

[Hyacinth]

Originally Posted by cinshad

Is this the right place to post this question? I have three coach legacy bags and they seem very close. I tried to post a photo to show an example of my question, but it said the photo exceded the mb allowed or something. There are a couple of differences in the three bags although they are the same model. I picked them up in different places over a couple of years. Their numbers are: B9N-9966 Mexico, H7D-9966 united states, C9D-9966 United States (first two are black leather and last is tan) The differences are that the strap grommits? or little metal things that surround the hole for the buckle to go through are smooth and perfectly round in the manufactured in Mexico one and in the other two they are smooth and round from the outside and kind of corrigated on the inside. I have a photo which I will try to post again. The other difference is on one of the hang tags, it is printed with 'coach' on only one side. Are any of these differences indications of a fake? Thanks!

Cinshad, it might be better if anyone asking questions about specific bags post the questions in the Authenticate This thread in the future, since this thread is meant more as a reference tool than an authentication thread.

But about your bags - Coach has used both kinds of grommets. I have the "corrugated" ones on my Taft bags and the smooth ones on several other bags. And the earlier bags often had a one-sided hangtag, or sometimes used two tags glued together back to back that would often separate after a lot of use. All your Legacy Bags are probably genuine.

[mcwhatever101]

Does anyone know what colors style # 6376 came in? The stamp says F3K-6376

Thanks so much.

[reddianasaur]

Originally Posted by mcwhatever101

Does anyone know what colors style # 6376 came in? The stamp says F3K-6376 Thanks so much.

http://www.coach.com/assets/product_...n2/6376_d2.jpg

It's on the drill down, call coach and ask them, they would know!!

[TxCollegeGirl]

This is a GREAT guide... I love it! I have one question (or rather a statement) though: I just got a Coach bag for Christmas, and I know for a FACT that it is real <~ my mom ordered it from the Coach website, and it looks JUST like all of the pictures included EXCEPT for the 'seal' on the inside of my bag. The creed is perfect - it's straight and the words are uniformly spaced - BUT there is NO serial number on it... just the label and the creed. Now, like I said, it IS FOR SURE a TRUE coach bag - perhaps there is an explanation for it not containing a serial number on the seal. ANYBODY who may be able to shed some light on my post, that would be WONDERFUL!

Thanks...

[court811]

Originally Posted by TxCollegeGirl

This is a GREAT guide... I love it! I have one question (or rather a statement) though: I just got a Coach bag for Christmas, and I know for a FACT that it is real <~ my mom ordered it from the Coach website, and it looks JUST like all of the pictures included EXCEPT for the 'seal' on the inside of my bag. The creed is perfect - it's straight and the words are uniformly spaced - BUT there is NO serial number on it... just the label and the creed. Now, like I said, it IS FOR SURE a TRUE coach bag - perhaps there is an explanation for it not containing a serial number on the seal. ANYBODY who may be able to shed some light on my post, that would be WONDERFUL! Thanks...

what kind of bag is it? there are a few that do not have serial numbers (some of the small bags, wristlets, etc)

[TxCollegeGirl]

Originally Posted by court811

what kind of bag is it? there are a few that do not have serial numbers (some of the small bags, wristlets, etc)

Oh yeah... it's a small bag... the Signature Pouch #40097. That probably explains why.

Thanks for clearing that up for me!

M.