After we discussed the Gucci material of our ‘Ultimate Real vs. Fake Gucci Bag Guide’ series, we now continue with the most important part of authenticating Gucci purses.
A fair warning before you start reading: the 3 following sections have LOTS of photos. And when we mean lots, we mean loaded with 50 plus images (just counting those images we combined as one).
But with your quest in knowing how to tell if a Gucci bag is real, you need to train your eyes very well. This is where we begin the Gucci bag serial number check.
As mentioned in our previous post, this is where we easily weed out fake bags from the real one. Whenever you look at a bag for sale online, or inside secondhand stores to score a find, open the bag straight away and look for the leather tag and serial.
The Gucci Logo Font
Before diving deep into the leather tag and the serial number, let us first focus our attention at the Gucci logo font above.
This photo is taken from a vintage Gucci trunk. We especially love it because of this big, deeply embossed GUCCI, rich with details.
Now, let’s deconstruct the Gucci logo with the photo below:
- The letter ‘G’: the letter G is very round. If you extend the curve line from the top-right and bottom-right you will form almost a perfect circle. But this is a G (not an O), and you can see that the top-right of the G has a flat side, then almost curving below like a comma. The top of the letter is thin, that gradually thickens as stroke move to the left. Lastly, the G has a serif on both sides. The serifs has the same size; unlike the longer-in, shorter-out of the GG monogram print.
- The letter ‘U’: the letter U starts with a thin right stroke that gradually thickens to the left stroke. This is important because a lot of fakes have the same right-and-left legs. The tops are also both topped with equally-sized serifs.
- The letter ‘C’: Gucci, obviously, has two Cs. Starting with the top-right stroke, it is thicker going into the topmost thin part of the letter. This also gradually thickens to the left part, that gradually things again to the bottom part. Now, you will notice the the two right sides are flat if you run an imaginary line next to it.
- The letter ‘I’: the letter is looks straightforward. However, please note that both top and bottom parts of the letter have equally-sized serifs on them.
A Little Caveat
Time and again, people claim that the lines should be like this, or the embossing/lettering should be clear all throughout etc.
From our experience of handling hundreds of Gucci bags, this is not always the case. Why?
Let us call a spade a spade: while Gucci is one of the most sought-after and highly desirable brands in the world, it is no Hermès. (And even Hermès, being hand-made, will have distinct and acceptable variations).
If you are looking at perfection in all details to ascertain a bag is authentic, then you will be sorry to hear this. A lot of authentic Gucci bags will be deemed fake if we apply these one-size, fits-all tips.
The manner by which Gucci bags are made vary. Whether from flagship stores or outlets, vintage or new ones, there will be slight inconsistencies with the products even with a stringent quality check.
The point is, you should not rely alone in a single determinant to authenticate a Gucci bag.
Vintage Gucci Bags
So, do all vintage Gucci bags have a serial number? Well, yes and no. For instance, very early handbags by Gucci had model numbers.
But things changed around the 1960s as some handbags had, while others did not have a model number. By the 1970s, vintage Gucci bags only had the Gucci script (cursive) with no serial or model numbers.
However, the vintage Gucci Accessory Collection bags released from around the late 70s to early 80s had the serial number in gold. You see items available online with some of the gold lettering faded or peeling off.
But there are also fake vintage Gucci Accessory Collection bags! We have seen tons of these!
While there is a dedicated section for vintage Gucci Accessory Collection (GAC), we will be discussing serial numbers of vintage Gucci bags here as a whole. Not all vintage bags fall under the GAC line, anyway.
Below is an example of a vintage GAC leather tag.
Notice that it is rectangular, rounded on the edges, and usually attached in the lining below the inside zipped pocket. It has the Gucci knight crest on top, with the words “GUCCI” (all caps), “Accessory Collection” (cursive) and “MADE IN ITALY” (all caps) embossed in gold lettering. Take a look at the font of GUCCI.
Through time, the gold lettering might fade. This will only leave the embossing of Gucci knight crest, letters, and numbers on the leather. If you also look closely, some authentic GAC bags even have a registered trademark (®) after GUCCI.
As mentioned, not all vintage bags fall under the GAC. An example is this vintage Gucci box bag, with the leather tag and serial number below.
Just like GAC, this leather tag is affixed below the inside zipper. It is round and has a gold-tone hardware affixed to it.
If you look closely, you see the Gucci knight crest, the correct Gucci font, the registered trademark (®), and the MADE IN ITALY engraved on it.
As there is a metal hardware, this is concealed by another piece of leather where the serial number is embossed.
In some cases, due to the age of the bag, the two leather pieces become split showing how the gold plaque is attached.
In the next post of this ‘Ultimate Real vs. Fake Gucci Bag Guide’, we will discuss another style of Gucci serial numbers on leather tags similar to the last two examples above: the rounded leather tag.
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Jump to any section of this ‘Ultimate Real vs. Fake Gucci Bag Guide’ below: introduction | material | vintage serial number | rounded tag serial number | rectangular tag serial number | exterior | hardware | zipper | lining | seams | vintage gucci & gucci accessory collection | gucci outlet | gucci plus | case study 1: gucci abbey bag | case study 2 : gucci soho bag | case study 3 : gucci dionysus bag |