Yankees Lot- Munsen Help Please
 

Hi All,

Purchased a Yankees lot, mainly team issues and was told the signatures were printed on cards but once I got them they were clearly done in some type of ball point type as they have groves on the back of many, some seem to be lighter pressure. Will not be upset if they are autopen or sec signed just wanted to get an idea as they for sure were not printed.

Thanks for any help!

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/YankSigs.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...YankSigscu.jpg

Looks like they were autopenned

Preprint. Those are part of the pictures and not real signatures.

I have had a number of those in the past. The signatures are not embedded/part of the image as with most facsimiles, but are definitely not hand-signed. I'm not sure what process they used, but they do have a "texture" to them that you can feel running your finger across the sig. The "ink" is much too uniform to be hand-signed though, especially if you look with a loupe where the lines cross each other. They're neat, but definitely facsimile.

Edit:
Even better than the Brookens example I had posted, I found a seller with your same Munson "signed" photo online, so if you want to upgrade yours to one with a signature without so much rubbing to it, you can for a mere $650.

http://steenosports.com/vintagevault...anmunsonhands/
http://steenosports.com/vintagevault...munson1a.jpg,7

Interesting that the signature does not appear in the same location, but just for kicks, I overlaid the two in Photoshop, and they are 100% exact matches, including the angle in which they are applied to the photo.

These often have a wet ink transfer of the "signature" on the back from being stacked before the ink dried.

The variation in the thickness of the lines makes it look unlike an Autopen. More likely a stamp IMO.

I do not think it was a stamp because of the groves on the back from the auto, I really think its an autopen or something that put direct pressure on the card.

Thanks for all the help.

Take a look again at where the lines in the signature cross each other under magnification. That will give some clues as to the method of application. I would do so, but no longer have an example in hand.

I will have to agree with Steve on this. These were mass produced for all of the players of that period. The ink was stamped on these. Since these signatures were applied in large quantities a metal signature stamp would have been used which would have left the impression visible on the back. These would have been passed through a printing machine and not individually done, thus the 'fairly' consistent location of the signature on the photo.