Here are some details that could more or less provide some indication for a pair of vintage Levis or denim. Please bear in mind there are actually much more than these details to determine a pair of denim to be vintage or none vintage but these are the easiest ways to identify one.

Selvedge (or selvage) is the edge of a fabric as it comes from the loom. Selvedges are woven or knit so that they will not fray, ravel, or curl. Jeans with this detail most likely to be produced before early 80s, otherwise it could be reproduction.

Pre 1971 LEVI’S on the tiny red tag was written in upper case or capital letters but by 1971 Levi’s Strauss had changed the letters to lower case except the “L”. This changes weren’t very visible except for the letter “e”, hence in the vintage world we change it the big “E” if those Levi’s were made pre 1971. These big “E” were much sought after compare to the smaller “e”. Somewhere during the early to mid 80s some of these levi’s jeans had the blank tag without wordings except the trade mark.

If the back pockets have hidden / concealed rivets, they were made pre 1966 and by 1966 there will no longer have any rivets from inside the hip pockets, what you will see is some black stitching from inside / outside the hip pockets. These levis with black bartack either have selvedge or none, if non-selvedge most likely these levis were the last of the vintage production that were made in USA

Since the beginning when Levi’s Strauss made the first pair of waist overalls, the company used leather material for the waist patch (two horse brand), it was around 1954-55 the company started to use heavy card stock to replace the leather material.

During WWII Levis made during this period sometimes had laurel leafs top button, we usually called it donut button and some would even had plain donut buttons on the fly. However, not all war time Levis had donut buttons. Other cheaper version of the Levis such as 201 or 701 made before and during and before WWII would have donut or shank buttons on them.

Pre 1937, Levis had the cinch, buckle or bow on the back of waist area. The purpose of this is to allow the wearer to tighten the waist overall. We usually called them buckleback, this version usually comes with a crotch rivet on the front.