Many of my readers have asked me to post pictures of questionable autographs. So here goes.
The following images are in my opinion very questionable autographs. If you own these items you should have them checked out now. Thanks to many of my readers for sending me some of these scans. I had saved many myself but my readers have added more. I will be posting more of these items in the near future. My hard drive is loaded with them.
Here is a Walter Johnson signed check, compare the signature to the baseball.
Here is a Ruth signed photo that I have shown to three other autograph experts. All of them state in their opinion it is authentic. Compare it to the other Ruth signatures. The cut signature was authenticated by a well known forensic examiner. What do you think?
The first day this page was up I had requests. One for Roger Maris and one for Christy Mathewson. Here they are.
More additions from my files.
new additions 6/5/2011
This one is being offered on ebay right now.
This one I recently noticed.
I hope that viewing some of these will give you an idea of what to look out for in the future. Notice the stiffness in the writing on most of these items, the slow carefully drawn signatures. A very telling sign. The $2 bill with the Ruth signature, dated 1932, has quotes around Babe. Babe stopped using quotes around 1928. The person who signed this $2 bill did not even know that. Notice the characteristics on the Johnson ball, look at the part of the ball that is underneath the signature, the rubbing on the ball, a telling sign. Notice the carefully drawn writing, people don't sign their names in such a fashion. Johnson had a very smooth flowing signature. This has tremor and stiffness. Remember in the investigation by the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs regarding autographs on ebay, I selected two autographs that were questionable to me, by viewing the scans on ebay auctions. An undercover buy was undertaken for those two autographs. The autographs were then submitted to the NYC Police Department Crime Lab. The lab determined that both autographs were forgeries. Exactly what I had said two weeks before they were sent to the lab.
Remember the vultures who prey on the unsuspecting are still out there, looking for the fast, easy buck. Beware. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Click to return to main forgery alert page.
CLICK this link, return to home page of Richard Simon Sports.
CLICK this link, view price lists of baseball autographs.
CLICK for information about getting autographs authenticated.
Click to read some pages from the indictment of Greg Marino, the major forger in California, who is now in Federal prison. There is a lot of interesting information here.
