Did you know that Hermès puts blind stamps in their products? These stamps, which you cannot see from the outside, include the year the bag was produced as well as an identifyer indicating the artisan who single-handedly crafted that particular bag. You'll find these codes inside the Hermès Birkin and Hermès Kelly bag, amongst others. These stamped date codes are very helpful when authenticating a bag and important to determine the age and worth of the bag.
Hermès started out with placing the date codes in the form of a plain letter, this began in 1945. By 1971, the letters were put in a circle, an alphabetic letter to coordinate the year the bag was crafted in. The circle was then replaced with a square and a letter to signify the year starting from 1997. For recent bags, Hermès no longer uses a geometrical shape around the letter as they have now started to go back to the basic plain lettering with a code/artisan stamp.
Reference the table below for more information about the date codes and the coordinating year.
NO SHAPE 1945-1970 |
|
|
A - 1945 |
O - 1959 |
|
B - 1946 |
P - 1960 |
|
C - 1947 |
Q - 1961 |
|
D - 1948 |
R - 1962 |
|
E - 1949 |
S - 1963 |
|
F - 1950 |
T - 1964 |
|
G - 1951 |
U - 1965 |
|
H - 1952 |
V - 1966 |
|
I - 1953 |
W - 1967 |
|
J - 1954 |
X - 1968 |
|
K -1955 |
Y - 1969 |
|
L - 1956 |
Z -1970 |
|
M - 1957 |
|
|
N - 1958 |
|
CIRCLE SHAPE 1971-1996 |
|
|
A - 1971 |
O - 1985 |
|
B - 1972 |
P - 1986 |
|
C - 1973 |
Q - 1987 |
|
D - 1974 |
R - 1988 |
|
E - 1975 |
S - 1989 |
|
F - 1976 |
T - 1990 |
|
G - 1977 |
U - 1991 |
|
H - 1978 |
V - 1992 |
|
I - 1979 |
W - 1993 |
|
J - 1980 |
X - 1994 |
|
K -1981 |
Y - 1995 |
|
L - 1982 |
Z -1996 |
|
M - 1983 |
|
|
N - 1984 |
|
SQUARE SHAPE 1997-2014 |
|
|
A - 1997 |
J - 2006 |
|
B - 1998 |
K - 2007 |
|
C - 1999 |
L - 2008 |
|
D - 2000 |
M - 2009 |
|
E - 2001 |
N - 2010 |
|
F - 2002 |
O - 2011 |
|
G - 2003 |
P - 2012 |
|
H - 2004 |
Q - 2013 |
| I - 2005 | R - 2014 (Early Production) |
NO SHAPE 2014-2021 |
|
| R - 2014 (Late Production) | C - 2018 |
|
T - 2015 |
D - 2019 |
|
X - 2016 |
Y - 2020 |
|
A - 2017 |
Z - 2021 |