OT: Calling All Autograph Experts

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I just got this in the mail today from an ebay auction I won last week....I didn't even know this was in the lot of items that I won until I opened the package....anyway do you think this autograph is real or would they have stamped it onto this certificate?

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Posted By: Donald Johnson

Looks like other Kenesaw Mountain Landis autographs I have seen.

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Posted By: Rhys

Dan

There are a few pretty easy ways to tell if it is stamped or signed in ink. First, feel it with your fingertips and see if the ink is raised at all. Most stamped signatures were done in a process that leaves the ink noticeably higher when you feel it. If that is inconclusive than get out a manifying glass and look for indentations left from the steel tipped pens of the era, or look for pressure points where the ink is darker and lighter in some spots. Age spots should be visible where the thinner ink spots will brown faster than the thicker spots and turn a sort of rusty color. Looking on the reverse might help too since a stamp would not leave any trace of pressure and a pen usually will unless the paper is really thick.

By doing the above things you should be able to tell.

The stray pen mark below the signature and the look of different ink and pens makes me think it is likely a real signature, but most certificates like this were stamped so it is tough to say without examining it in person.

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Posted By: Mike

His signature is a nightmare to authenticate. he signed them many differnet ways. It is usually illegible. One of the very few parts of his signature that are consistant is the - dis. This looks legit. it is however, not possible to know whether or not it is signed or stamped from the scan. His signature varied considerably during his lifetime. The other consistant element was the slant and character spacing. Looks legit though. he commonly signed as K.M. Landis, and Kenesaw M. Landis, and Kenesaw Landis. It varied alot from day to day, and year to year.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Rhys, thanks for the tips....Everything printed on the certificate is raised except for the three signatures...the paper is thick stock similar to the thickness of a postcard...on the reverse you can see faintly the signatures where the ink "sunk" into the paper some....not all the way through, but you can definitely see the signatures on the back. I think they may be real.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Stamped signatures are easy to identify as they resemble stamps not real handwriting. As there is a space for the commisioner to sign, making it like a contract, the only real worry is if the sig is the commy's or secretarial. Ordinarilly, the secretarial will be distinctly different to the real signature, as the secretary is not attempting to styalisically duplicate the real signature but spell the name.

For an old document with a place for a specific famous person to sign, the two main questions are if it's real handwriting (pretty easy to tell for old docs) and if it's his or secretarial (again not too hard to tell if you have sig samples). With more modern political docs, the third question is if it is autopen. Most autopens are much smoother, cleaner than real handwriting.

As a general rule, old handwriting and ink looks old, in part because few use fountain pens anymore.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Minimal expertise, but that looks real enough to me that I'd buy it.