Hermès Date Stamps: Every Year Letter From 1945 to 2026

Find the year of a stamp

Choose the frame around the letter, then the letter. The year appears at once. You can also start from a year.

The four cycles at a glance

Where the date letters come from

A code the house never published

Collector references agree that Hermès began pressing a year letter into its leather goods in 1945, starting with a plain A. Earlier pieces carry no date stamp. Hermès has never published the code or said why it began that year, so the start date rests on collector consensus. Auction catalogues fit it: Heritage Auctions dates plain-letter Kelly bags to 1960, 1962 and 1964, consistent with the sequence.

Sotheby's describes the purpose of the mark: the code on a Birkin identifies the year, the workshop and the artisan who made it. The letter is a production record. It tells you when a bag was made, not when it was sold.

The artisan's mark

The year letter sits beside other characters that point to a person. Hermès builds each bag with one artisan from start to finish, a practice described by the Victoria and Albert Museum and by Sotheby's. Guillaume de Seynes, Hermès executive vice president, put it plainly to The National in 2025: "Each bag has a personal mark, so every bag is identifiable." L'Étudiant, profiling a 23-year-old Pantin leatherworker in 2016, reported that each artisan signs his bags with a punch.

There is no public key to these marks. No reliable source lets an owner turn the characters into a name. A collector forum moderator wrote in 2016 that the house had changed its marking system and was unlikely to explain it.

Why the frames changed

An alphabet runs out after 26 years. When the plain letters reached Z in 1970, the cycle started over in 1971 with each letter inside a circle. In 1997 it began again with a square. The frame is what separates a circled A (1971) from a square A (1997). Hermès has not explained the frames itself. Collector guides read them as a way to tell one cycle from the next and no source offers another reason. The square cycle stopped at R in 2014. Some late 2014 bags already show an R with no square.

Why the order broke in 2015

In 2015 the frame disappeared and the letters stopped following the alphabet. The next letter was T, not S. Since then the sequence has jumped from X to A, C, D, Y, Z, U, B, W and K through 2025. PurseBop reports that the house broke the order so that makers of counterfeit bags could not anticipate the next letter. Hermès has not confirmed this.

The stamp moved at about the same time. PurseBop reported in 2016 that on exotic Birkin bags the stamp had left the underside of the strap for the inside of the bag roughly two years earlier, followed by leather Birkin and Kelly bags. A boutique associate quoted on PurseBop's forum that year described placement as random since late 2015. That remark is secondhand.

Stories collectors tell

The new bag with an old letter. PurseBop answered a 2025 buyer whose brand new boutique Kelly carried a U. The bag was made in 2022 and had most likely waited in stock. Early in each year, bags stamped with the previous letter keep arriving in stores.

"I think I made your bag." De Seynes told The National about an event where a woman showed a rare violet crocodile bag to an artisan, who recognized it as her own work. He added that some artisans who moved to the repair workshops have repaired bags they once made.

Repairs going home. One reseller's guide writes that the house can identify the original craftsmen when a bag is sent to Paris for repair. It adds, with its own "allegedly", that the same people do the work. Hermès says only that its workshops handle repairs and that the best care for a bag is to return it to them regularly. Treat the same-artisan rule as collector lore.

The horseshoe. According to Sotheby's, a small horseshoe beside the Hermès logo has marked Special Order bags since 2006. Before that, a custom bag could only be recognized by its features.

The shooting star. Several resellers' guides say a shooting star marks a bag an artisan made for personal use. No statement from the house was found. This is collector lore.

The letter and the price. Sotheby's notes that the newest bags sell at the highest premium and that Birkin bags five years or older tend to sell for less. A correct letter still proves nothing about whether a bag is genuine.

Year by year

Boundary years follow the sequence; no dated example sits exactly on them. The first three cycles run one letter per year through the alphabet. The table lists every year. Years in bold have been seen as a letter and year pair in an auction catalogue, a dealer listing or a dated collector guide; the others follow the sequence.

From 2015 the letters carry no frame and skip around the alphabet. PurseBop says the house broke the order to make new letters harder to anticipate.

The 2014 transition

The square R is the convention for 2014. Several collector references also report bags from late 2014 with an R and no square, as if the new unframed style had arrived early. One reference adds a fair warning: a faint or incomplete square does not by itself place a bag in late 2014. An unframed R is also the plain letter for 1962, so the bag itself has to settle which one you are looking at.

Where the stamp sits

The location depends on the model and the era.

For decades the Birkin and the Kelly carried the stamp on the underside of a strap. Collector press reported the move in 2016: first on exotic skins around 2014, then on a leather Birkin bought in Paris in January 2016, then on Kelly bags by June 2016. The new spot reported for the Birkin is the upper back left corner inside the bag, near the back flap. For the Kelly it was described as a hidden spot in the leather folds of the bag. A boutique associate quoted on a collector forum in March 2016 said placement had become random since late 2015. That remark is secondhand.

So the claim that stamps moved inside the bag "after 2016" is not accurate. The change was phased in from about 2014 to 2016. It was also specific to models that had used the strap. On many other designs the stamp was always somewhere hidden, such as behind a plaque or inside a pocket.

Reseller guides now publish model by model location lists, but they do not agree with each other. Treat any single location as a starting point, not a rule.

Workshop and craftsman marks

The year letter is not alone. Sotheby's describes the stamp as a code that identifies the year, the workshop and the maker. Hermès itself describes its leather work through the principle "one person, one bag", where a single artisan carries an object through every step.

The meaning of the extra letters and numbers is not public. A collector forum moderator wrote in 2016 that the house had changed its marking system and was unlikely to explain it. No reliable source lets a buyer turn these characters into the name of an artisan, so be wary of anyone who claims to.

Special marks

These marks sit next to the "Hermès Paris Made in France" stamp, not inside the date stamp.

Exotic skins have their own small symbols beside the brand stamp, such as a caret for porosus crocodile and a small square for alligator. The alligator square is the one most likely to be confused with a date frame. Sources do not agree on the Niloticus crocodile symbol: Sotheby's has printed both "=" and two dots in different guides.

One reseller guide also describes a handful of 2011 bags where the O Square date stamp is joined to a J craftsman mark. It is a single source.

How to read a stamp

1. Find the stamp in good light, ideally with a photo of the stamp and the leather around it. 2. Identify the year letter. It is the single letter standing apart from the workshop characters. 3. Look for a frame. A circle points to 1971 to 1996, a square to 1997 to 2014. 4. No frame means two candidates: 1945 to 1970 or 2015 onward. The construction, hardware and materials of the bag decide between them. 5. Read the result as a year of manufacture and nothing more.

Common misreadings

• Purchase year. Collector press answered a 2025 buyer whose new boutique bag carried a U: the bag was made in 2022. Bags can sit in stock. Early in each year, bags with the previous letter still arrive.
• Plain letter, wrong century. A plain A, C, D, T, X, Y, Z, U, B, W, K or G each matches one year from 1945 to 1970 and one from 2015 on.
• Worn frames. A circle and a square can both fade with wear. Check the corners before choosing a cycle.
• Skin symbols. A small square beside the brand stamp is an alligator mark, not a 1997 to 2014 date frame.
• Guide errors. One dealer guide captions a C in a circle as 1977. By the sequence it is 1973. One auction listing address reads "X, 2019" where every other source gives D.

A date stamp never authenticates a bag

Counterfeiters copy date stamps. A correct letter in the right place is consistent with a genuine bag; it is never proof of one. Hermès states on its own site that it "cannot guarantee nor verify the authenticity of an item purchased outside of an official Hermès point of sale." For a pre-owned bag, rely on a qualified authentication service that examines the whole object.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Hermès date stamp for 2026?

Collector and reseller sources report G with no frame. Hermès has not published it and no auction catalogue entry pairing G with 2026 was found as of October 2026.

What letter did Hermès use in 2025?

K with no frame, according to collector press that reported it on a bag bought in January 2025.

Why does my new bag have last year's letter?

The letter records the year the bag was made. Boutiques can sell bags made one or more years earlier.

Did the date stamps really start in 1945?

That is the consensus of collector references. Auction catalogues date plain letter bags to 1960, 1962 and 1964 consistently with it. No Hermès document confirming the start year was found.

Does a date stamp prove my bag is authentic?

No. It is one detail among many and counterfeiters reproduce it.

Where is the stamp on a recent Birkin?

In 2016, collector press reported the inside of the bag, upper back left corner near the back flap, on a Birkin bought in Paris. Placement has varied since, so do not treat a stamp elsewhere as a red flag on its own.

Why did Hermès start date stamps in 1945?

Hermès has never said. The 1945 start is the consensus of collector references and fits auction catalogue dates from the 1960s. Sotheby's describes the code as a record of year, workshop and maker.

Can the stamp tell me which artisan made my bag?

Not you. An Hermès executive says each bag carries a personal mark that makes it identifiable, but the key is not public. Be wary of anyone who claims to name the maker from a photo.

Why are recent letters out of alphabetical order?

PurseBop reports that the order was broken in 2015 to keep counterfeiters from anticipating the next letter. Hermès has not confirmed the reason. Either way, the letter dates a bag. It never authenticates one.

About this guide

MyQuotaBag gathers what Hermès, auction houses, the press and collectors publish, says where they disagree and adds what its own resale data shows. Resale figures are public asking prices, not confirmed sales or valuations of any bag.

MyQuotaBag is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hermès.

How to cite: MyQuotaBag, « Hermès Date Stamps: Every Year Letter From 1945 to 2026 », Hermès Reference, 2026-10-19. https://myquotabag.com/date-stamps/

Updated on 2026-10-19