Authentic vs Fake: History of the Coach Creed-Serial #

SHORT HISTORY OF COACH CREEDS & SERIAL NUMBERS.

In the 1960's Coach bags had either a metal identifier tag, or simple impression of the Coach logo, no creed no serial #'s.

Coach introduced the creed without any serial # sometime in the late 60's/early70s. The word "leatherwear" is under the word Coach and the wording of the creed at this time was all caps "THIS IS A COACH BAG. IT IS MADE OUT OF A COMPLETELY NATURAL GLOVE TANNED COWHIDE. THE SCARS, SCRATCHES, VEINS AND WRINKLES ARE NATURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FULL GRAIN LEATHERS". Under the creed is in all caps, "MADE IN NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A." ALL Coach bags made after the introduction of the creed and before serial #'s were introduced were made in NYC. Note that there are gaps in the creed in the lines describing the "scars, scratches, veins and wrinkles"

When Coach added serial numbers to the creed in the 1970's they were "all numbers" in the format "xxx-xxxx" . The last four digits do not correspond to the style number, each bag had a unique number. Coach ceased making bags in NYC in the mid 70's before there was such a thing as fakes or knock offs. NYC bags are vintage and rare.

This serial number format (all numbers, xxx-xxxx) is also on bags made in the United states, after Coach began manufacturing bags in multiple locations in the USA rather than NYC (sometime in the mid to late 70s). The wording of the creed is the same, except on the bottom it will say 'MADE IN THE UNITED STATES" OR "MADE IN U.S.A." Again the last four digits are not the style number, and the serial #’s were unique to each bag. There are a few styles with "MADE IN U.S.A" that have 8 in the serial number - all numbers, no dash, just a continuous string.

In the 1980's Coach changed the serial numbers to "all numbers" in the format xxxx-xxx. The last three numbers do not relate to the style number, again the serial #’s were apparently unique to each bag.

It was not until the 1990's that Coach introduced the modern registration format of letters and numbers, with the last four digits being the style number (or in the case of some of the newer bags after 2000, the last five digits). These registration numbers are not unique to each bag. The wording of the creed was also changed to all caps "THIS IS A COACH BAG. IT WAS HANDCRAFTED IN (country of origin) OF COMPLETELY NATURAL GLOVE-TANNED COWHIDE. THE VARIATIONS IN THE GRAIN ARE CHARACTERISTIC OF NATURAL FULL GRAIN LEATHER." There are no longer gaps between any of the words. Before 1994, most serial numbers were seven numbers long and didn't give any clue to the style name of the bag. After 1994 the last half of the number was actually the style number, and the front half of the number showed where and when the item was made.

HOPE THIS HELPS A LITTLE!

mrharley747
adesignersdeal
www.adesignersdeal.com