Counterfeit Education
※ Download: Coach serial number search
If genuine, a detailed description of the bag should come up including the year it was made and where to buy one like it. Make sure you get pics of the bag from angles. Both styles need to be looked at carefully.
The entire number is invalid and that style code would never be on a bag with that prefix - ALWAYS fake. Price Tag: All Coach price tags are attached with a small plastic loop. Signature lining on Hamptons Weekend bag. For a while in 2009, there were various Bonnie canvas wannabes and leather Lilys that were showing up with this style number.
More Info on Serial & Style Numbers - Lots of things wrong here -- but one of them is the Coach stamp on the clasp.
Visit a Coach store or authorized Coach retailer and learn how they feel and what they tend to look like. At least 50% of the counterfeit bags I see are obviously counterfeit due to clearly inferior quality. Unless it has been severely mistreated and dried out, it does not crack or seem to be damaged if folded in half. Coach leather is also not paper thin and prone to peeling though some is easy to scuff. This does not mean the bag is counterfeit. Signature bag with signature lining. It can be easier to see the quality of stitching in a photograph than it is to see leather quality. Examples of crooked lines and mistakes in stitch size. Just keep it in mind as you look at other things. Here are some additional fake creeds, identifiable by the pressure of the stamper — one is way too light, the other is a bit heavy. Some are stamped a little more lightly than others though they should always, always be readable , some have a different font size, some have justified alignment with weird spacing, some have left alignment, some center the last line, etc. It seems to depend on the country of manufacture, the age, and probably the factory. A few creeds from authentic bags. In some cases, the number was at some point pasted into the bag underneath the creed there will be an empty rectangle where it used to be but may have gone missing. Those will be New York City-made bags. This will usually give you some product search results or images. You can also search on , where the people are knowledgeable and may have had a past discussion about the bag you are researching. It may be best to simply ask about it on purseforum. If you authenticate a hangtag you have only authenticated the hangtag, not the bag to which it is attached. Here is an authentic Coach hangtag from a vintage bag, just to illustrate that not all authentic hangtags are created equal, quality-wise. Fake paperwork almost always indicates a fake bag. Fake price tag on a fake bag. There should be more than a barcode and a string of numbers stamped inside. Real price tags have short descriptions of the item, and a price at the bottom unless it has been removed. You must check everything else as well. Some of the older zippers like Falcon are marked underneath so the marking is hard but not impossible to see. I have read that some authentic bags have had COACH embossed zipper pulls, but the ones in the photos are those I often see on fakes. It is sometimes subtle — on the inward-facing side of a buckle, for instance. The logo need not be on every piece of hardware or even the majority. Sometimes it might only be on one thing, and sometimes there are none at all. There may be others as well. Some individuals who sell Coach on eBay and other sites can be trusted to have authentic Coach that you can compare yours to, but many sell counterfeit items — use common sense and take care who you listen to. If you see something that is inaccurate please feel free to leave a comment! Paid quite a bit for it. It is very well made, looks like leather but there are also other signs that make me wonder if it is fake, like sloppy stitching in some areas and the inside label has words that are joint. It looks like a nice bag and nothing in the photos sent up any red flags. If you can please help me out thank you so much.. Is it because like you said, even authentic item bought in coach boutique has some imperfection? The receipt shown that this wristlet is bought from coach factory outlet, potomac mall, virginia. Hope to hear from you soon. If you are still unsure, let me know what made you doubt its authenticity and I can share my thoughts. Your site is very easy to understand and helpful, so thank you! Would you be able to tell me if this bag should have zippers with that mark? As far as I can recall, Coach bags with zippers have at least one of them stamped with a brand name usually the interior pocket zipper. Not necessarily YKK—the list of the ones I know about is in the guide. Be sure to check underneath the zippers as well rather than just on the sides. Please NEVER use a stamp on a zipper to authenticate a purse. The Coach experts at thePurseForum will authenticate any Coach bags, keychains or other accessories — just register as a member, read the Forum Rules and FAQs, and follow the format set out in the first post of the Authenticate This Coach section and post clear photos. BTW, if your style 1416 is genuine, its correct name is Legacy Large Soft Leather East-West Duffle. I just wanted to let you know that you CAN authenticate a Coach Bag by the story patch numbers located on the inside of your bag. While I agree that it is possible to decipher the patch numbers to determine which type of store the bag was made for factory outlet vs. Thank you for the info and feedback! Coach does NOT teach their employees how to authenticate bags. As OURGOODWILLSTORE said, fakes can have valid creeds and serial numbers — why would you think that counterfeiters are too stupid to copy or invent a serial number? And what about bags made before the style numbers were part of the serial number? Do you even know when Coach started doing that? Do you have anything concerning wallets? There are some other services online that do provide actual authentications that can be used when selling- CarolDiva is one. And the creed ends with a comma, not a period. This post really helps! The sewing on my bag is unnoticeable but once you look closely the sew of my bag is really bad. The creed on my bag has misspellings like thefinest and ourcommitment. I checked on the Coach website and there was no model like mine. Oh and can i ask you, the zipper holder which has the name Coach on it is Gold instead of leather. Is there bags like that? I just bought a Coach purse from our local Good Will. Now, after doing some research.. The creed has no number. After looking carefully at the stitching, there are double stitches in some areas. The zipper compartment inside the bag.. WHAT DO YOU THINK? This would be a great lesson learned. Hi PM, Sorry to say, but definitely a fake. Now that you have experience looking at those things in person, it should be easier to spot those issues in other counterfeits. Sorry you lost your money on this one though! Best of luck next time. To upload photos you would need to put them into a photobucket or picasa account or similar and post the link. Alternatively, ask in Purseforum. They would probably be a bit more timely about getting back to you, since I generally only get a chance to reply to these comments once a month or so. Best of luck either way. I have a coach bag that a family member gave me and she said that it is genuine. I want to be absolutely sure that it is because I want to sell it. There is no creed on this bag. In your opinion what do you think? It could just be the angle of the camera…? Does that make sense? YKK and Ideal zippers will have the marking on the side of the zipper, the part that holds the pull. The lower left picture in this shows it: — some others are different. Just look all over on the zipper. And remember that bags with YKK zippers and Ideal, I think usually only have labeled zippers on the inside or smaller pockets. The main one is usually unbranded. I recently bought coach bags that my friend selling and she told me that she ordered those bags thru online. She shipped that to me from US to philippines. My question is, is there a possibility that this coach bag came from US but made in philippines are authentic? The lining sounds correct. Whoops, sorry, this should have been addressed to Carla — Please understand, NOTHING CAN BE AUTHENTICATED WITHOUT PHOTOS. However, that serial number is valid for a Multifunction Tote, which was a large combo tote and diaper bag and came with a changing pad. Which is too bad. Allow bags to be mailed into them and authenticated for a fee. If a bag was legit, they could return it to the customer with a CoA and be a bit richer. If the bag was counterfeit, they would be able to destroy it themselves, taking the fake bag out of the second-hand market…and still be a bit richer. Please understand, NOTHING CAN BE AUTHENTICATED WITHOUT PHOTOS. However, that serial number is valid for a Multifunction Tote, which was a large combo tote and diaper bag and came with a changing pad. Coach did offer a for-pay authentication service, but dropped it a few years ago. I do Coach authentications at thePurseForum and the Ebay forums, and the details you have to know about each style are pretty overwhelming. To do it right you need detailed photos of EACH style, plus dependable information on when and where each style would have been made — sometimes a fake can look accurate in all the basic details but the crooks got the wrong dates in the serial number codes. Most highly-faked designer brands like Coach, LV, Chanel, etc are complicated enough to require someone who specializes in that brand. No one can become an expert on all of them. She has well over 50 different handbags.. IT WAS HANDCRAFTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF COMPLETELY NATURAL CLOVE TANNED COWHIDE. THE VARIATIONS IN THE GRAIN ARE CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURAL FULL-GRAIN LEATHER. And also, on the front bottom corner, in the leather it says COACH, and beneath that it says NEW YORK. Any help would be really appreciated. If you have a lot of bags to authenticate you really should join thePurseForum. Selling a fake on Ebay, even without knowing, can cause a lot of problems and lead to listing removal and selling restrictions. The ones I have seen are fabric. Most things about it look legit—the turnlock, the stitching style, etc. To be 100% certain, consider asking the ladies at purseforum. One or more of them might own the same bag and know what to look for. You might add that along with China and the Philippines, recent Coach styles have also been made in India and Vietnam. A handful of styles even have the pattern at a 45-degree angle. The bag Lily asked about on March 26 looks like a genuine Compact Pouch to me too. Keep up the good work! I am interested in purchasing several bags from one of my local Facebook yard sale sites and these sites seem to be overrun with folks selling fake coach bags! Most of these I have been able to spot as fake right away thanks to your posts!!! Second question- on the leather creed- I have seen several bags where the creed is centered not the new gold writing creeds and there is a lot more empty space on both sides of the leather patch. Almost all others I have seen fill up the entire space on the patch. The wording matches and spelling but the spacing is different. Could it be that one of the numbers is actually a letter? They might change their codes to consist completely of numbers for some factories. As for the centered creeds with a lot of empty space, that sounds weird for an embossed creed. Sometimes they center the last line, but mostly the text is justified. I would feel more confident actually seeing photos. I just bought a coach bag from the coach outlet website cut when I got it it had to little plastic tags in side one it the purse saying mad in china the WRISTlet says made in the pillipinness. Is it really they came with the thing saying they came from one coach way site. But why r there little pastic tags in the bag? The seller refuses to refund for a return. Hello Lily, Based on the photos, my impression is that the bag is authentic. The issues you mentioned sound consistent with many vintage Coach bags. Vintage hangtags, for example, were often made of two pieces of leather back-to-back, suede sides glued together and smooth sides both stamped with the Coach logo to make a double sided tag. Vintage Coach bags are really varied in materials. Hello Christine, I just stumbled upon your Tacoma Goodwill store, blog spot, and got about half way through the first paragraph on tips for authenticating Coach bags, and recognized your words o f wisdom. I had been a member of purseforum. I thought you had a wealth of information to share and your posts helped me in learning more about how to authenticate Designer, and Designer vintage items, in general. I know enough about Coach, Gucci, Swarovsky, and a few other names, to be a tad dangerous. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on Coach; your information is invaluable. Does it sound real? Hello, I am a bit perplexed regarding the hardware of a Coach Bag I bought that had all the traits of being authentic except for one thing. The zippers are marked YKK everywhere, including inside and all the hardware appears to be brass but the zipper track itself is plastic. One of the pictures of an authentic bag in the above article appears to have the metal hardware and a plastic zipper track. Would I be able to send you a picture for you to see? I purchased the 10125 signature tote, but the gold lettering on the creed is worn off, but still engraved in and some of the gold tone hardware is rubbed silver—do you know if coach uses solid brass only? Can I send you a link to my listing ended? Recently i bought a coach madison floral small wristlet and found out that the rose printed on the fabric has slightly different compare to some i saw online. As i saw through other websites, some roses were up and down or right and left or maybe there is only one big rose in the middle. Can this be considered fake? Hi Jane, As far as I can tell, the pattern is pretty consistent for that wristlet. If you have that exact style but the pattern is off, it may be a counterfeit. Hi, I am wondering if coach ever uses bonded leather? I purchased a coach brown leather madison maggie bag — everything seems like excellent quality,seams, lining, hardware, creed, straps are obviously quality leather — but when I pull up the edge of the inside seam — so I can see the bottom of the leather — it seems to be white fibers — not obviously plastic, but almost like bonded leather. This is a very very soft and shiny leather. How good are the really good fakes? I purchased a patchwork scribble tote on eBay. Everything about it looks authentic except it has a signature lining. Do some patchwork bags have signature lining? Is there another way I can tell? Should I report seller and ask for refund? Sorry to hear you were duped into buying fake bags; I strongly suspect that they are counterfeit. If you got them from another website calling itself a Coach outlet, and especially if they have no numbers, they are counterfeit. As for China: most Coach bags are made in China these days, but be wary of any seller who ships bags from China. Also be wary of any website offering extremely discounted new Coach bags. You can get deals from the Factory Outlet and ShopGoodwill. This is the best resource!!! LOL thanks so much!! Hi Chloie, If the bag is missing the Coach Creed, it is not authentic. Thank you so much for this information. I was given a Coach bag as a gift and I was able to determine it was a fake.
Coach has used at least FIVE different brands of zippers and fakes makers can buy real OR fake YKKs so a zipper doesn't prove a thing. Can I send you a link to my listing ended. I just wanted to let you know that you CAN authenticate a Coach Bag by the story patch numbers located on the inside of your bag. Price Tag: All Coach price tags are attached with a small plastic loop. Inspect the material in this instance. Failing that, you can attempt to get in touch with Coach directly, and you can discuss the matter of your serial number there.
