Louis Vuitton is one of the most desired and respected fashion designers in the world. Its products, such as the Louis Vuitton Batignolles Vertical and Horizontal bags, retail for over $750 and are in high demand around the world, with stocks sometimes hard to find.

Official Louis Vuitton outlets are undoubtedly the best places to shop. You are guaranteed a genuine, new Louis Vuitton bag, with after-sales support that matches the exemplary pre-sales service you can expect from one of the most respected retail brands.

With consumer items so expensive, there is an opportunity for cheap imitations to find their way into the market and with a significantly lower price, consumers are tempted to shy away from official outlets. These replica or fake Louis Vuitton bags can be difficult to spot in isolation and a potential buyer needs to know how to identify a genuine product before making a purchase.

If you want to verify that your LV Batignolles bag is a genuine LV product and not a fake, you should look for a date code that is printed on a leather tag inside the zipper pocket of the bag. This will either be a two-letter, four-number code or a one-letter, five-number format showing the country, month, and year of manufacture.

Country of manufacture

The first two digits indicate the country of production. For France, the digits will be A0, A1, A2, AA, AN, AR, AS, BA, BJ, CT, DU, ET, FL, MB, MI, NO, RA, RI, SD, SL, SN, SP, SR, TH or VI. For the US, the digits will be FC, FH, LA, OS, or SD. For Spain, you should search for CA, LO, LB, LM, or LW. Germany is indicated by the LP code, while if your LV bag was made in Italy, the code would be CE or SA.

Month and year of manufacture.

The last four numbers refer to the month and year of production. The first three indicate the week while the last digit shows the year. For example, a Louis Vuitton Monogram Canvas Batignolles Vertical with a date code of SP0329 would have been manufactured in France during week 32 of 2009.

We hope this article has given you the free advice you need to check out your potential LV bag purchase.