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E, DanielDavid, I agree and I don't.
There is an essential truth or genuineness to every moment and action.
If a swimmer does a flying 50 'crawl' under 20 seconds but none are there to time it - yes it happened. But it's unverifiable and as such has no intrinsic value other than in the unabridge unwritten history of the universe. Even the swimmer is unaware of the truth of the moment.
If his/her parent is there and times it on a stop watch, again the moment happens but similarly gains no legitimacy to anyone outside the family. Really, whose going to believe my mom anyway 
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But have that swim be at a sanctioned meet with 'experts' there to verify the time and the record comes into being - regardless of the genuineness of other previously successful attempts.
Similarly an auto, so often witnessed only by a first account holder and whose history is lost immediately after, can have no genuiness that is acceptable to everyone minus expert verification - monetarily anyway. Otherwise we must believe the charlatans as readily as Joe the plumber - our latest oracle.
Sure you can hold onto that ball your uncle gave you along with the story of it's getting and fervently believe in its genuineness, but to anyone else paying for it the authenticity can only be determined by those we believe learned enough to make such prognostications.
Otherwise - my doodle's as good as yours is as good as sinatra's .
Daniel