The Marion Date Code - Marion Imp Paris -

If you think your photo is from the 1880s or 1890s it is worth getting a lens and peering at the printer's name at the bottom of the back of the card.

The dots and dashes and speech marks around the printer's name Marion Imp Paris appear to be a printers date code, used to tell when the card was printed perhaps for re-order purposes. Note that once printed it may be used in a week, or even up to two years later, if it was stored before use. Cards were usually reordered about every six months so this may not be a major problem.

Some rough ideas as to how I think this works, based on little evidence! It seems to work on my examples - it took me some time to get this sorted out!

1870s the name is just written as Marion Imp Paris though this appears on some later cards, so do not rely on it (old stock?).

From 1880 to 1890

The starting date point seems to be 1880
Note: A dot or a dash counts as one

- Marion Imp Paris -
1 + 1880 + 1 = 1882

Note: A dot means after 1885

- Marion Imp Paris -
      - . -
1 + 1885 +1 + (underneath) 1 + 1 + 1 = 1890

From 1891 - 1899

Marion Imp Paris " - - -
1890 +1 +1 +1 = 1893

Note: A dot means after 1895

- Marion Imp Paris - . -
1 + 1895 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 1899


Let me know if this works and what do the speech marks mean?
How did they tell the 1880s from the 1890s, or were they not thinking that far back - so it didn't matter to them?

Some Examples