How reliable are embossed dates on old Kodachrome or slide mounts?
Asked 4/4/2024
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I’m sorting old family slides and trying to decide whether to trust the handwritten dates or the embossed date codes on the mounts. Some slides have a handwritten annotation added later, often with a date, but the mount itself also has an embossed date code that sometimes disagrees. In a few cases, several slides share the same embossed month/year markings but have different frame numbers, which makes me wonder whether the embossed code reflects processing, mounting, or something else. Are these embossed markings generally reliable, or could they be wrong because they were set manually by the lab?
Originally by xenoid. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
xenoid
2y ago
2 Answers
2
By 1969 Kodachrome film was being developed by Kodak and also by many other photo labs. This slide was not processed at Kodak. I can tell that by the printing on the slide mount. This slide could be Ektachrome or one of its knockoffs. Photofinishers worldwide could develop this film.
In any case, the film was processed and then sent to a mounting machine. This machine printed and embossed the slide mount. The machine operator was responsible to manually set the words and numbers to be imprinted. The correctness of date printed depends on the lab doing due diligence.
I was Quality Control at a small photofinisher in Atlanta. Most such photofinishers got their film from camera shops and drugstores. The labs worked all night to get the film back next day. Sometimes the machine operators, who were sleepy and assigned tasks like setting the date on these machines, dropped the ball.
Originally by Alan Marcus. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Alan Marcus
2y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The embossed date on a slide mount is not guaranteed to be the exposure date, and it may not even be a reliable processing date. For many slides, the film was processed first and then mounted, and the mounting machine printed/embossed the date code on the mount. At many labs, that date setting was entered manually by an operator, so mistakes were possible.
That means the mount date is best treated as a clue, not proof. It may reflect when the film was mounted or processed, but its accuracy depended on the lab’s care. If the mount printing indicates the slide was not mounted by Kodak, reliability can be even less certain because independent labs also processed and mounted slide film.
So if your father’s handwritten notes conflict with the embossed mount code, neither one is automatically definitive. The safest conclusion is that the embossed markings are not fully reliable enough on their own to settle whether a slide was taken in 1968 or 1969. Use them alongside other evidence such as sequence within the tray, identifiable events, locations, clothing, or known family trips.
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