John Hancock question
 

Does anyone here have an opinion of shipping cargo manifests from John Hancock I see these type thing for sale from time to time most come with PSA/DNA certifcation. Does anyone have opinons one way or another about items like this and possible value? Any help would be appreciated.

to see what they typically sell for go to rrauction.com and search completed items for Hancock, you can scroll through and find several of those.

I've purchased one myself that I currently have on layaway. They don't go nearly for what the "flourished" Hancock items go for but I do believe them to be authentic.

Panagopolous (sp?) with Alexander Autographs used to sell similar styled John Hancocks and I've bought and sold similar ones from him before as well.

I believe they are generally believed to be authentic and are what I call "variant" signatures, much like the atypical George Washington's that you can find that were in the body of documents and don't have his usual flair and typically go for about 1/2 of what the usual style does.

Mike

I owned a similar document in the past and it was deemed an authentic variant of his signature as well. I sold it 15 years ago and got... $1776 (an appropriate figure)! Not sure what they go for now but as already stated, it is authentic.

Rhys

I wouldn't call it (or the in-text Washington) a "variant signature." There is a difference between writing one's name (e.g., filling out a form or application), and signing one's name.

He did sign it like that too, not just used when he was writing his name in context. Mine was on a signature line and signed that way. I was told by an expert when I had mine (15+ years ago) that when he needed to he would sign in the big flourishing way we see sometimes and when he didn't need to, he would sign it in this more simplistic form. Ink and pens back then made his formal signature laborious and time consuming so when he was signing business documents and mundane things, he would sign in this simplistic form but when signing government documents and formal (ceremonial) pieces he would sign in the other form. I am FAR from an expert in this area, just relaying what my experiences were having owned one at one point.