How Do You Tell Tintypes From Daguerreotypes?
You have an old photograph image on a metal surface. It is a tintype or a daguerreotype? The differences between the two are discernible if you know what to look for when examining the photograph. Establish the age of the photograph. Daguerreotypes were produced for a limited amount of time, only about 20 years, from 1839 to 1860. Tintype production had a longer run of about 40 years, with the first tintype being created around 1856 and lasting as a photographic method until the early 1900s. Determine region. Tintypes were far more popular in America than daguerreotypes. Keep this in mind if you are presented with a photograph created in the overlapping years that the two were used. Examine the image. Daguerreotype images have a magical quality to them that tintypes do not. If the photograph can only be seen at certain angles, there is a good chance it is a daguerreotype. These images also have mirror qualities to them. A daguerreotype will reflect items such as paper with writing on i
