Date Codes in Louis Vuitton's

Ever wondered what the date codes in your LV bags mean?  One way of identifying a fake from a real LV piece are the date codes.  If the codes do not mean anything, chances are the item is counterfeit.

Louis Vuitton started using date codes in 1980 thus, any vintage pieces before then will not have date codes. The date codes are usually two letters followed by four numbers. In older pieces, this may not hold true. But for the new ones, the first 2 letters would indicate the country where the piece was manufactured (LV started manufacturing bags outside France in 1990). Some are made in the USA, Spain or Italy.


Those made in France should have the codes: A0, A1, A2, AA, AN, AR, AS, BA, BJ, CT, DU, ET, FL, MB, MI,NO, RA, RI, SD, SL, SN, SP, SR, TH, VI
 Those made in USA should have the codes:  FC, FH, LA, OS, SD
 Those made in Spain: CA, LO, LB, LM, LW


Those made in Italy: CE and SA


Those made in Germany: LP

The 4 numbers following the letters would indicate the month and year the item was manufactured. The first and third number represents the month and the second and fourth represent the year. For instance, a bag with date code AR 0979 means that this item was made in Italy in July 1999.

Note though that in 2007, LV again changed the number format to indicate the week the item was made. The first and third numbers indicate the week of the year the bag was made. Thus an item with date code FC 1087 would mean that this item was made in the USA on the 18th week of the year 2007.


Hope this info helps!