Help with Mordecai Brown Check

[jdl7860]

I bought this check cheaply, nowhere close to what an endorsed check of Brown's should cost. I just thought it was a neat check from Mordecai Brown! The check writer was a prominent businessman from Lawrenceville during this time and Brown was around town then as well. My questions are: was this a forged signature attempt, or did someone else need to add his name there for banking reasons? Any ideas on what the $1000 was for (was he still involved with the Lawrenceville team at this time)?
Thanks!

[ATP]

Based on the handwriting of the signature, I would say that he had someone else write his name as endorsement. I believe he owned some businesses after he retired and probably had an assistant that would do it for him. No one in banking verifies the signature on an endorsement when being deposited into ones own account, with the slight exception to some government issued checks where a viewed endorsement is required.

[daves_resale_shop]

I would have to agree with Jeff... Signature looks to be in another's hand...

but regardless, a very cool item especially if you didn't have to pay an arm and a leg for it like this one!

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auction/2008/850.html

[tazdmb]

I saw that and the other Brown check in the Clean Sweep auction. Did it come with any cert? I thought it mentioned in the listing that Brown signed the check. I thought the listing was odd.

[jdl7860]

I saw that one also, I bought this one from Small Traditions and was described as signed, but final bid was $75 or so, no one thought it was signed by Brown. The ones in Clean Sweep looked to be from the same group as this one (Small Traditions had several) and someone must have been trying to flip it I guess. It is odd though that the "signature" on the back is signed on top of the clearing house stamp. Makes me think that it is a forger that is not too sure of his work and is trying to put the signature in the busiest part of the check. I was just wondering if that was some kind of old bank book keeping technique to write the recipients name over the stamp, because the cancelled check would have gone to Mr. Young, not Brown, right?

[JimStinson]

Between 1920-1945 Brown ran a gas station in Terre Haute. Quite a few years back a cache of checks related to this enterprise hit the market. The checks were all endorsed checks not personal checks. There were quite a few and were absorbed quickly into the hobby. Slightly more than half were endorsed by Brown on the portion of the reverse of the check were you would normally endorse a check , the others were endorsed by Brown's wife using his name.
The differences in the signatures were obvious to the semi trained eye. But all that I remember seeing (I'm sure I didn't see ALL of them) but I saw a lot of them. Were signed at the top endorsement portion. Either by Brown himself or the Mrs.
The checks signed by his wife were often mistaken as having been signed by the Hall of Fame pitcher. Once most collectors had figured it out , half checks began to surface with a forged Brown signature on the lower portion of the reverse of the check. What they were doing is cutting the checks signed by Mrs Brown in half and endorsing the bottom portion making it appear as if he himself had endorsed the check.
Authentic Mordecai Brown endorsed checks are NOT rare but his autograph is one of those that has spiked in price in the last several years with prices ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 depending on the seller.
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