What's the Best App to Identify a Vintage Handbag?

There are two separate questions you can ask about a vintage handbag. What is it, meaning the maker, the model and roughly when it was made? And did that house really make it? The first needs an identification tool and the second an authentication service. Naming a bag does not settle the second question, and our app does not try to.

Vintage Bag Index makes Vintage Handbag Identifier, one of the apps compared here, so weigh the recommendation with that in mind. It is the strongest option in this comparison for one job: naming a vintage Coach bag from 1981 to 1999 against documented catalogue records. For other jobs another tool does better, and the table shows which.

Identifying and authenticating are different jobs

Identifying tells you the house, the model or family, and about when the bag was made. Authenticating tells you whether that house made it. A counterfeit can be identified correctly, since a good copy borrows the shape, hardware and stamp of a real model. Serial numbers get copied as well, so a code that matches a real style proves little by itself.

Coach won’t settle it for you. Its brand-protection page says it does not respond to requests to authenticate product, so for a vintage Coach the second question goes to an independent service.

Google Lens for a first lead

Google describes Lens as a way to search with your camera, an image or a screenshot when you can’t put something into words, and to find out who makes it, what it costs and where to buy it. On an iPhone, Lens is part of the Google app, whose listing says it finds similar products to buy.

If a bag has no maker you can see, start here. Lens costs nothing, it isn’t limited to certain brands, and it can turn up listings for bags that look like yours. What you get back are similar-looking products and pages. Google doesn’t describe Lens as dating bags or checking them against a catalogue, so treat a match as a lead and keep going.

AI handbag identifier apps

Search the App Store for “handbag identifier” and you’ll find several apps that take one photo and return an AI-generated answer for any brand. One of them, Handbag Identifier from Kawaii, Incorporated, lists a name, brand and line, an era and estimated production period, condition notes, an AI value estimate and authenticity notes among its results. Others in the same search add a 0 to 100 authenticity score, or a resale estimate with comparable sales.

They cover more ground than our app does. They’ll attempt any brand, and they estimate value, which Vintage Handbag Identifier doesn’t. Handbag Identifier’s listing is also upfront about its limits: its identifications, authenticity notes and value estimates are general information, not appraisal or authentication, and they can be wrong. With any of these apps, check what an answer rests on. A name you can test against a documented record (a style number, catalogue years, measurements) is worth more than a confident name you can’t check.

Vintage Handbag Identifier, for Coach and Louis Vuitton

This is the iPhone app Vintage Bag Index makes. Its field catalogue holds 1,102 documented styles: 629 Coach styles from 1981 to 1999 and 473 Louis Vuitton references from 1985 to 1999.

On a Coach bag, start with the Creed. Photograph the patch and the app reads the serial, then follows the style number into the catalogue. Google Gemini reads the photo if you agree to send it. If you decline, or the phone is offline, the iPhone reads it instead. Creed scans are unlimited on both plans.

For the whole bag, add up to four photographs. A Coach result can name an exact model from 1981 to 1999. A Louis Vuitton result goes as far as a family, such as Speedy or Keepall, or an era, and some results stay unidentified. The app also reads Louis Vuitton date codes, which give production context but do not identify a model. You can search the catalogue by style number, name or category without using an identification, and each entry shows documented dates, dimensions and colours where they were recorded. Saved bags, notes, photographs and repair history stay on your iPhone.

The app’s own “What can we identify?” sheet adds suggestions for Hermès and Chanel (to a family or an era) and for Fendi and Gucci (to a family). No catalogue records sit behind those four.

Where it does better

With a vintage Coach bag, the app compares your evidence with documented catalogue records, not with whatever looks similar online. You get a shortlist of likely matches with their source support and limits. A Coach match comes with a style number, documented years and, where they were recorded, measurements you can hold up against the bag itself. That matters most when the Creed is worn and the photographs have to do the searching. How to identify a vintage Coach bag has the step-by-step version.

Where it falls short

The catalogue that makes it useful also makes it narrow. A Coach bag made after 1999 has no record to match, and neither does one from the Bonnie Cashin years before the catalogue starts. Louis Vuitton results never name an exact model. The app doesn’t authenticate a bag, estimate its value or prove its age or condition, and it runs only on iPhone (iOS 16.4 or later).

The download is free, but on a new install you need a Collector subscription to get into the main app. Weekly adds 2 whole-bag identifications each week and has no trial. Annual adds 50 at the start of each paid year, and eligible customers can begin it with a 7-day free trial and 5 whole-bag credits. Before you subscribe you can try an offline Coach stamp example, and the App Store shows the price for your storefront. The app page covers the rest.

Free decoders on this site

You can read the mark inside a bag on this site for free, with nothing to install and no photograph sent.

• Coach: the Creed decoder reads the serial, and the style number lookup compares a style number with 1,237 documented styles from 1981 to 2010. After 1999 it holds only the Coach catalogues reviewed so far.
• Louis Vuitton: the date code decoder matches a code to its documented format window.
• Chanel, Hermès, Gucci and Fendi: the Chanel serial number decoder, Hermès date stamp decoder, Gucci serial number decoder and Fendi serial number decoder.
• If you don’t know the house, what bag is this? starts from the mark you can see.

Each decoder tells you what a format says. None of them authenticates a bag. LegitGrails runs free serial number checkers as well, 32 by its own count, so it reaches more brands than this site does. Where published Coach guides read the same code differently, where Coach serial number guides disagree lays the readings out side by side.

Authentication services

When you need to know whether the house made a bag, pay for an authentication. Four services cover handbags:

• Real Authentication: you upload photos and get a determination within 12 to 24 hours, and the company says two or more expert authenticators typically review each product. You pay per item. Faster turnaround, official documentation such as a certificate of authenticity, a fair market valuation and an estimate of the item’s age cost extra. Its brand list includes Coach and Louis Vuitton, and there is an iPhone app.
• LegitGrails authenticates online from your photos, in as little as 30 minutes. It says each item is reviewed by up to four experts and that it issues a verdict only when they all agree. You pay per item.
• CheckCheck is an iPhone app that covers designer handbags among other categories. Its listing says human experts review every item, results can arrive in as little as five minutes, and each completed check comes with a certificate of authenticity. Plans are sold in the app.
• Entrupy is aimed at resellers, online marketplaces and pawnshops. Its app walks you through close-up photographs, its AI compares the magnified images with a database, and the item comes back Authentic or Unidentified, with a certificate if it passes. It’s sold by subscription, lists Coach and Louis Vuitton among its brands, and says it supports past styles as well as new ones.

Along with eBay’s programme below, these are the options here that give a verdict on authenticity. Each of the four services charges per item or by plan, and a photo-based check needs clear photographs of the details the service asks for, so follow its photo guide closely.

Buying through a marketplace that checks the bag

If you’re buying rather than checking a bag you already own, the marketplace may handle it. Under eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee for handbags, the seller sends an eligible bag to an authentication facility for inspection before it comes to you. A bag that passes arrives with a card. One that fails goes back to the seller, and you get a refund. On eBay.com the programme covers a list of select brands. When this note was checked, Louis Vuitton was on the list and Coach was not. eBay Australia offers the guarantee on eligible handbags sent to an Australian address.

Which to use

• If you have no idea what the bag is, get a lead from Google Lens. Then look inside for a mark and use what bag is this? to find the right decoder.
• If it’s a vintage Coach with a Creed, read the Creed free with the Creed decoder and search the style number. Vintage Handbag Identifier adds camera reading and a whole-bag comparison with the catalogue, which helps most when the Creed is worn.
• If it’s a vintage Louis Vuitton, the date code decoder gives the code’s format window, and the app can narrow photographs to a family or an era.
• If you want a quick guess for any brand, or a value estimate, try an AI identifier app, and check its answer against a documented record before you rely on it.
• If money is changing hands, use an authentication service, or buy through a marketplace that inspects the bag first.

Sources and limits

Each third-party product is described from its own website or App Store listing, read on 23 October 2026. Features, brand lists and prices change, so check the current page before you pay. None of the links here are affiliate links. Vintage Handbag Identifier’s details come from its App Store listing for version 1.0.7 and this site’s app page. Vintage Bag Index makes the app, is not affiliated with Coach, Louis Vuitton or the other houses named here, and does not authenticate or appraise bags.