I have imported some scanned (old) jpg images to DT 4.6.1 I noticed that in some DT shows wrong date for the image (field datetime). There was no existing xmp file before import, so I assume DT read the data directly from the scanned jpg file. (?) When I open the file in ExifTool, image date is correct (in all respective fields, at least those that are visible in Exif Editor). Not sure where the discrepancy comes from.
How can a scan have been created in 1995 with a software version from 2014. I guess the date / time related fields are invalid. To check I would not use a graphical frontend but exiftool directly :
exiftool -H -G1 -a /path/to/your/image.ext
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It wasn’t. 
I inserted the date when scanning the film.
BTW, darktable uses exiv2 to read exif data, not exiftool. I guess your manipulated tags have a format which exiv2 recognizes as invalid.
Possibly. will check it out, thanks.
exiftool -DateTimeOriginal="1995:08:18 12:00:00" /path/to/your/image.ext
sets the tag “DateTimeOriginal” so that it can be read / used correctly with exiv2 / darktable.
There was something wrong with those images’ metadata and the above Exiftool command didn’t work. I opened those images in Affinity Photo and then exported stripping all metadata, followed by applying your Exiftool command and finally imported back to Darktable, this time with correct dates.
Thanks for your help
In the case of jpg files with lossy compression, there is always a risk of loss of quality in this case. You can also use exiftool to remove some (or all, see example) tags from an image file without this risk.
exiftool -all= /path/to/your/image.jpg
Good point, cheers