Louis Vuitton decoder
Read your Louis Vuitton date code
From 1982 to March 2021, every piece carries a stamped code: two letters for the workshop, four interlaced digits for the date. Since then a chip has taken over. Type the code as you read it.
Locating
Where to find the code
The code is heat-stamped on a small leather tab sewn inside — in a pocket, along a seam, or on a D-ring attachment. On Alcantara linings it is printed directly into the fabric. It is often hard to read: tilt the piece towards the light.
Method
How to read it
01
1982–1985: three or four digits
The first two give the year, the last one or two the month. "844" reads April 1984.
02
1986–1989: digits then letters
Same reading, followed by two letters for the workshop. "882 VI": February 1988, workshop VI, France.
03
1990–2006: letters then four digits, in months
The 1st and 3rd digits give the month, the 2nd and 4th the year. "SP0065": workshop SP, June 2005.
04
2007–2021: letters then four digits, in weeks
Same writing, but the 1st and 3rd digits give the week. "SR3179": workshop SR, week 37 of 2019.
05
Since March 2021: the chip
No more stamped code. An invisible RFID chip replaces the date code — it can only be read in store.
06
The letters: the workshop, hence the country
Most workshops are in France; others in Spain, Italy, the United States, Switzerland and Germany. Two codes are shared: FL and SD (France or USA), LW (France or Spain).
Ranges compiled from public authentication guides — the houses do not publish their tables. They are indicative, give or take a year.
What it does not tell you
A code dates. It does not authenticate.
Counterfeits copy codes, often correctly. What they do not copy are the leathers, the stitching, the engravings, the hardware — what our experts examine point by point, and what Entrupy technology verifies under the microscope for leather goods.
Our authentication protocolThe other decoders