The newer China-made bags have differences in the leathers and may have some level of plastic coating compared to the vintage full-grain leathers on classic Coaches. Coach calls that one a Legacy Leather Soft Slim Duffle and it's from 2004 so it might need slightly different treatment than one of the pre-2000 bags. When asking for rehab information at the Rehab And Rescue Club, always be sure to mention the style number and, whenever possible, include a photo of the creed and serial number so the experts can tailor their advice according to the leather used for that style and time period.
Speaking of leathers, here come my recommendations for helpful reading material, Bookmarking and saving as text files is recommended since
nothing on the internet is ever really permanent:
The six
Salearea Coach Guides - lots of history, how to recognise potential fakes, how to decode a serial number in bags made since 1994, and masses of other stuff. Several readings are recommended, "It's complicated". The first 13 posts are mostly background and very few of the links in them still work, but keep reading, it will be worth it. The link is Pinned to the top of every page in this Authenticate thread:
Now that ebay is removing the guides they've been hosting for years, those who use those guides have been forced to either save them on their computers or print them. Tonight I found that the Salearea guides (including the Hyacinth/Salearea collaboration ones) have been saved to Salearea's...
forum.purseblog.com
The
Daria48 Fake Coach Numbers List, started at Ebay 15 years ago. Some of the most common fake and sometimes-fake serial numbers, mostly geared toward vintage bags. It follows closely after the Salearea Guides in the same thread:
@Hyacinth I was just reading your excellent Italian coach guide above and I have a question. I am currently rehabbing a Gramercy Top Handle 7002 bag from 1999 (that you graciously authenticated for me) see below for one of the auction pictures. I am trying to figure out the color name for this...
forum.purseblog.com
For the "bible" of information on current and classic Coach leathers and why they sometimes seem so different (because they ARE!), this is a long and eye-opening read but well worth it -
The Coach Screed by Cyberia Vintage:
And as a bonus, a great source of
vintage Coach catalog scans in the main Coach forum, Reference Library sub-forum, covering roughly 1980 to 2000 and a great tool for vintage lovers, also right here at tPF:
Here is a place to find entire vintage catalogs that been uploaded ;)
forum.purseblog.com
The first three differ from the vast majority of mostly outdated or undependable so-called "authenticity guides" still spewing bad information across the internet. All three were
meticulously researched. I can speak for the first two and promise that the research was done from scratch based on information the author collected herself from catalogs and known genuine items and from dependable sources for Coach history and information. Most online Coach "guides" are basically "copy & paste" versions of earlier ones going back as far as the early 2000 decade with the same out of date, foolish, inaccurate and even dangerous misinformation repeated over and over again. These 3 are as dependable as the authors could make them, and the two posted here at tPF also have any corrections and updates to the information posted in the same thread right behind them. Sadly, the original author of the Coach Screed is no longer with us, but I only managed to find one mistake so far, about fakes never being made of the same quality of full-grain leather as genuine classic Coaches - on very rare occasions, they
can be, because I own one. Other than that, the information included is thorough and thought-provoking.
Happy reading!
