[Exhibitman]

The only certain way to tell an original negative would be to get it from the photographer or the original owner of the image (we are all the original owners of the snapshots we took, hence their negatives), though I suppose an expert with sufficient skill and knowledge could ascertain whether a negative is original or not. The prints themselves, though, would appear made from the original--that's the whole point of doing it.

The other thing I was thinking of is that with all these dupe negatives out there at about the time the photos were made for news use, how can anyone tell whether the photographs made at the time were from dupe negs or the original neg absent the photographers' own stamping?