Help with Ty Cobb signed photo's at a local auction..."Ace" Authentication?

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by BrandonG

PS I think the first auto process Polaroid was 1960.

This piqued my curiosity and it seems polaroid photographs can be dated via the date code on the photo, if one knows how to decode it. (Or, more accurately, you can date when the film was manufactured, with the usual assumption being that it was used within a few months of that date).

That being the case, I've done some preliminary searching, but haven't turned up anything that describes how to pull a date from the code. My understanding is that law enforcement agents have long been able to contact Polaroid customer service to determine the date of photos relating to an investigation, though I don't know if that still holds true (assumedly they would have to contact Fuji now). It seems to me though that someone somewhere would have made public the method for dating these photos.

So, anyone know something I don't that they would care to share?

(5 minutes later)
And of course, within minutes of posting the original question, I happened upon a document with the answer. In case it proves helpful to anyone, I found it here:

http://gawainweaver.com/images/uploa...olaroid_ID.pdf