This is a general buyers guide, describing not only counterfeits, but things to look out for in general. There's been numerous guides out there to fakes and the best way I think is to look around for some pictures of fakes and compare them side-by-side. The tell-tale sign is the lettering on bottom but I've noticed that on a lot of fake ligne 2's, the ridging on the top of the flint cover is almost 'u' shaped in the middle, kind of like a ligne 1's, but to a lesser extent. A real L2 is always a downward slant and never slants back up again. Older ones had a shorter slant.
Lighters need 500 to 600 basic operations and around 70 parts, and the manufacturing cycle usually takes 4 to 5 months. Each object is unique, as the worker.
I've been able to use this method of determining fakes without having to actually see the bottom of a lighter, which is useful if you're buying online Visual Cues. Vintage.JPG (16.4 KiB) Viewed 114747 times This isn't an entirely reliable way to tell unless the picture shows that portion of the lighter clearly. On some real ligne 2's it looks like it's slanting back up if the photo is at a slight angle, but they should taper downward and stay relatively the same size until the end. They will not get any higher and if you notice the ridges getting higher towards the hinge side it's probably fake. I'd expect most older style ligne 2's to have the older emblem, which has dupont spelled across the bottom. The newer lighters have either just a D with wings or no emblem at all. I have not seen any fakes trying to emulate the older style emblem so generally they are trying to copy the one with just a D and the wings.
Generally the ones with no emblem come in the newer black/purple boxes although that may not always be the case. Limited editions often don't have emblems either, and will have an issue number rather than a serial number, such as 0001/1000. Generally the fakes with lacquer look somewhat plastic-like in the pictures, almost looking too shiny. Also if it says lacque de chine and it's not lacquer, it's a fake.
Anything with FK in the serial number is fake, as well as lighters with the serial number 06D08A8 or similar (a couple letters/numbers swapped but otherwise the same). Serial numbers are generally 6 or 7 digits long but never longer and should end with a number.
Pricing Estimates All estimates are USD and are for reference purpose only. These should not be used as actual pricing guidelines, but rather as minimum prices to use when avoiding fakes. Ligne 1 Ligne 1's are often sold between $50 and $250 used for most common models, depending on condition. New old stock can often be found for $200-400 range.
Damaged/heavily used ones can sell for extremely cheap sometimes - $30 - 50. Note that there's a few generations of Ligne 1's, the oldest have a slot on the fuel cap and a older style flame adjuster valve. Old bottom w/slotted fuel valve oldbottom.jpg (10.72 KiB) Viewed 114457 times These are pretty common and generally aren't worth as much due to their age and older mechanism. These lighters cannot use the double flame and/or pipe fuel nozzles that the later Ligne 1's and ligne 2's can accept. These are probably the cheapest of all used dupont lighters, and you can get one of these for less than $100 easily, regardless of the pattern and size.
Some of the ones with heavier gold plating might be worth more, but the later heavy-gold-plated models are still more desirable yet. Autocad lisp programs free download. Most of the newer style will use the pull-down style fuel cap and the newer style flame valve. Flip down bottom flipdown.jpg (18.95 KiB) Viewed 114457 times However, even some newer Ligne 1's have the older style slot, with the newer style flame height adjuster. This is generally only seen with certain plating/finish options, typically diamond-head patterns in palladium.
However, the tell-tale sign as to whether it's a newer or older Ligne 1 is always the flame height adjuster valve. The newer lighters with the slot generally have newer markings, and tend to use one of the heavier platings, like this one.
New lighter with heavy plating and old-style slot. Newoldbottom.jpg (16.25 KiB) Viewed 114457 times Ligne 2 Used Ligne 2's and Gatsby's can range anywhere between $150-350 used for most common models. I have seen a few in bad condition sell for as little as $80, generally worn silver plated models in undesirable/outdated patterns, or badly cracked lacquer, but this is somewhat uncommon. You can find often find new-old-stock or like-new in the $350-500 range. If you see a like-new Ligne 2 for less than $300, something is probably not right.