diff --git a/src/atom.cpp b/src/atom.cpp
index 26fb6cc304..f2ee14291a 100644
--- a/src/atom.cpp
+++ b/src/atom.cpp
@@ -977,19 +977,19 @@ void Atom::data_atoms(int n, char *buf, tagint id_offset, tagint mol_offset,
     int imy = 0;
     int imz = 0;
     if (imageflag) {
-      imx = utils::inumeric(FLERR,values[iptr],true,lmp);
-      imy = utils::inumeric(FLERR,values[iptr+1],true,lmp);
-      imz = utils::inumeric(FLERR,values[iptr+2],true,lmp);
+      imx = utils::inumeric(FLERR,values[iptr],false,lmp);
+      imy = utils::inumeric(FLERR,values[iptr+1],false,lmp);
+      imz = utils::inumeric(FLERR,values[iptr+2],false,lmp);
       if ((domain->dimension == 2) && (imz != 0))
-        error->one(FLERR,"Z-direction image flag must be 0 for 2d-systems");
+        error->all(FLERR,"Z-direction image flag must be 0 for 2d-systems");
     }
     imagedata = ((imageint) (imx + IMGMAX) & IMGMASK) |
         (((imageint) (imy + IMGMAX) & IMGMASK) << IMGBITS) |
         (((imageint) (imz + IMGMAX) & IMGMASK) << IMG2BITS);
 
-    xdata[0] = atof(values[xptr]);
-    xdata[1] = atof(values[xptr+1]);
-    xdata[2] = atof(values[xptr+2]);
+    xdata[0] = utils::numeric(FLERR,values[xptr],false,lmp);
+    xdata[1] = utils::numeric(FLERR,values[xptr+1],false,lmp);
+    xdata[2] = utils::numeric(FLERR,values[xptr+2],false,lmp);
     if (shiftflag) {
       xdata[0] += shift[0];
       xdata[1] += shift[1];