Reading faded signature using enhanced light?
 

I saw this baseball listed for the upcoming Huggins & Scott auction. Says that the signatures have faded and are unreadable. However, JSA found 22 signatures "through specialized light modification". Exactly what are they referring to? Is black light helpful with reading faded signatures? Just curious.

http://hugginsandscott.com/cgi-bin/s...=273&lotno=601

In some cases, yes, because the ink will fluoresce differently than the leather of the ball. I have seen at least one auction listing (for a Gehrig signed ball, if I remember correctly) where they somehow photographed the ball under black light in order to show the signature which was otherwise obliterated. It would have been a good idea to do something similar in this case because you clearly cannot read any of the signatures listed. It seems to me that they must show up pretty well under the black light (or are there other similar lighting types besides the typical black light that could be used?) for the authenticator to be hanging themselves out there like that. Not only would they have to be able to make out the signature, but also tell if it's real or not. Although, admittedly, the likelihood of someone faking signatures and then obliterating them to that degree would be very slim...

At a crime scene, CSI forensic experts have special lights that give a broad range of life-- infrared to all the colors of the visual spectrum to ultraviolet to colored lenses. They use this to pick up hidden details. They will then photograph it for documentation. Used to identify blood drops on a dark surface, eyelashes on a rug, etc. Under certain lighting, an item will stand out.

So it could be UV that made the signatures stand out, could be infrared, could be an visible color that picks them up. With the CSI light machine, they will go through the whole range of light until something is picked up. I've used infrared light to pick out old writing on baseball bats. It often works well.

Illuminating a surface with raking light (from the side) can also reveal subtleties not easily visible... that's how they found out that some ancient marble statues were actually painted, not pure white!

Yes, it's amazing what's possible with differing light. Even having access to long and short wave UV opens up a whole world of "invisible" stuff.

I didn't know they used a device with a wide spectrum. Being into gadgets I'll have to look into picking up one of those devices. Maybe IR camera first....

For flats it's amazing what a good scanner and even basic photo software can do. Changing the color levels and contrast/brightness can pull up details that are tough to see otherwise.

Steve B

Strictly as a collector, I prefer those autographs I can see with naked eyes under normal light.

Does anybody have an Invisible Man autograph available for my Super Heros collection?

Doug

Yeah, at some point when signatures are this faded, it starts to just become an old baseball.

It got me thinking: Do you think it may be better, when a ball or something else is this faded, to have it professionally restored/enhanced?

Maybe it could be authenticated first, then enhanced with full disclosure. I hate any altered signatures, but in cases like this I would think putting more ink on it would be the only way to save it in the long term. Just a bit more age or light exposure on an item like this and there will be absolutely nothing left.

I think if I owned the ball I would want to restore it so that it wouldn't die a slow death and fade into oblivion.....thoughts?

PSA and JSA own expensive machines (around $25K) called video spectral comparators. They're incredible at making faded signatures glow like Christmas lights using various filtrations. VSCs are also wonderfully adept at detecting painted-over signatures on so-called "single-signed" balls.

That's a funny one Doug! LOL
 

FUNNY!! :p

Agreed.

This sort of reminds me of the ol' "If a tree falls in a forest, and.............." from college philosophy class. To each their own, but if I can't see it without a $25,000 machine it's as good as not there.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Lots of good info. I agree that if I had to buy a $25k machine to read them, I wouldn't want it. However, if a simple black or uv light will make some faint sigs identifiable, I'm good with that. I often look for those kind of balls because they are cheap, and I find the investigative part of it fun, because you never know what you might run across. Granted the value isn't there, but if I am not investing much, then I am good with it. With the cheap stuff, the fun is knowing the players held the ball to sign it, and that it might have been used in a game even. A simplistic view I know, but I find that fun collecting.

I would imagine that there is (or soon will be) a chemical that could be applied to the ball to restore the contrast so the signature was become easily visible. Has anyone experimented with this idea? Would that be considered acceptable since the signature isn't being altered?