I could see a thin film of applied chemical starting to oxidise and react to form some opaque milky substance that might affect clarity and diffuse light.
Sure the lens could be damaged in some manner: scratched, fungus, elements out of whack, dirty..., or maybe it just slipped by quality control. But age and old technology by themselves do not equal substandard results. I'm using old Schneider enlarging lenses, as well as all manner of other vintage lenses, uncoated, single coated, etc.... They usually compare very favorably to modern lenses, except they tend to be less contrasty.
The photo below is from a camera with a 1950's Ansco anastigmat lens (simple 3 element design), single coated. Enlarged with a Schneider enlarging lens from the 50's. You can almost see them in this webfriendly sized file, but in the full size print the fine hairs on her arm and shoulder are sharply resolved. The corners are soft, but that's to be expected on an amateur camera from the 50's with such a simple lense design.
Lens designers have had sharpness nailed for 100 years. The improvements in lens technology since then have occured in the corners of the image (allowing camera makers to use smaller lenses with less coverage), coatings for contrast and color, correcting wide angle distortion, and zoom lenses. The planar lens design (5 or 6 elements) from the 1940s is still a standard in professional prime lenses.
Schneider camera and enlarging lenses are considered some of the very best lenses made, yesterday and today.
EDIT: Off the topic, but who needs EXIF data anyway, I'll always be able to tell what film I used.
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