How To Understand When Your Hermes Purse Was Manufactured: A Complete Guide To Hermes Blind Stamps (with Year Chart)

Every fashion lover speaks of Hermes fashion house with admiration, because owning an iconic bag is a top dream of every stylish woman. Made of fine leather, handcrafted by several artisans, having a simple but recognizable look, available only in limited numbers, these bags are coveted by all the ardent fashionistas.

Unlike many other brands, Hermes doesn’t scream about itself by placing huge logos and proving their bags are real. Manufacturers don’t add any tags or authenticity cards. All information about bags is contained in special symbols embossed on leather, and that is called a blind stamp. In this article, we will talk about this significant part of every Hermes bag, reveal what kind of info you can get by reading a stamp, and find where these tiny symbols are located.

Let’s get started!

What is A Hermes Blind Stamp?

A code is a significant element of each high-end bag, as plenty of people want to make sure they aren’t buying a counterfeit. To tell an original Hermes bag from a fake one craftsmen have designed their own special code. Not to add too many details to the bag, like leather tags (because every single purse is crafted manually, even stitching is handmade), the brand has created its own way to show the age of a bag and to prove it’s an authentic item.

Hermes embosses date codes directly on leather. They are called blind stamps.

A blind stamp is a heat stamp in the form of a single letter, sometimes surrounded by a shape, which indicates the year of manufacturing.

It is called a blind stamp because it’s hidden and sometimes tricky to find. Usually, the fashion house uses letters in alphabetical order, changing them each year. Later versions of the heat stamp also provide information about craftsmen and have additional letters and numbers.

Why is it so important to have this heat stamp on the bags? Well, Hermes has a strict policy about everything concerning their products, for example, only the team that manufactured a purse has a right to repair it. When a bag is sent for repair the experts can easily identify where and when it was made just looking at the heat stamp.

Such a method makes Hermes bags extremely hard to authenticate, if judging by embossing only. So it’s better not to rely on it, but also to examine other features. The brand is not issuing any cards, but if a bag is missing a blind stamp it’s definitely a fake. Styles of the blind stamp change every year, so let’s take a closer look at its history.

Where To Find A Hermes Blind Stamp?

An obvious question that comes to everyone’s mind: where do I find this hidden stamp? Hermes keeps changing the location of their blind stamp, and it can be different depending on the model of the bag and the year. One detail that never changes is that it’s made on leather only! That’s totally fine to see heat stamp in various places when examining different bags, there are no strict rules for that.

You can look for the blind stamp on the following parts of a Hermes bag:

Behind a plaque.
Inside the bag (on the top of the side panel).
On the reverse side of the closure straps.
Inside the exterior pocket.

Hermes Blind Stamps By Year: Chart

What can a blind stamp tell a fashion lover, not an expert? Well, first you can determine the age of a bag. Once you find it, you can look at the chart below to see to which era a purse belongs. Hermes started to use heat stamps quite early, but all items until 1945 comes without it. A simple way to determine the age of a bag is to remember that in 2000 date codes started with D, and you can go down or up the alphabet until you reach your heat stamp.

First Era Of Blind Stamps

The first heat stamp appeared in a Hermes bag in 1945, it was letter A without any frames. The fashion house continued changing letters every year until they ran out of them. Twenty-five years later the first era came to an end, and Hermes started to think about redesigning.

Second Era Of Blind Stamps

In 1971 the theme changed and letters started to appear in a circle shape. If you see an encircled letter you can undoubtedly say that a bag was made before 1996. It was the last time when all the letters of the Latin alphabet were used in their correct order without interruptions.

Third Era Of Blind Stamps

Following traditions in 1997, the design was changed, letters then appeared in a perfect square. This stage ended in 2014 with letter R being the last. After that period, the fashion house invented a brand new way to show their date code.

Fourth Era Of Blind Stamps

In 2015 Hermes started to add special craftsmen combination placing it next to the date code. Until now, it looks like a line made of letters and numbers, where the initial letter means the year of production and everything else is a code of manufacturers (called craftsmen stamp). Letters again are plain and not surrounded by any shape. Another interesting feature of this period is that Hermes didn’t start the alphabet from the beginning, nor did they continue with the next letter after 2014. Look at the chart to see how unpredictable date codes are.

This was made to get rid of counterfeits, who were ready to flood the market with fake Hermes bags. Skipping S in 2015 and later B in 2018 was a very clever move by the fashion house.

If besides the history of Hermes blind stamps you want to know more about the Hermes fashion house, check our Hermes 101: Everything you need to know about your favorite handbag designer.

Want to upgrade your authentication skills and learn other features to pay attention to while buying a Hermes bag, take a look at our guide on how to spot a fake Birkin

Keep in mind that the blind stamp alone is not enough to authenticate a Hermes purse. There are many other features that matter. If you plan to buy a pre-loved high-end bag, the best decision is to let a professional take a closer look at the item.

This post is written by Anastasiya (Premium Member) and is shared with her consent. For the original post (same content), please feel free to check her website.

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