Open letter to STAT and Christopher Morales

[Archive]

Posted By: <b>Richard S. Simon</b><p>To answer SC's question as best as I can -"have there been forgers good enough to make a perfect copy of a signature?"<br />The skills of forgers have varied widely.<br />The "business of forgery" probably started with a few of the "very early" guys - Ron -----, Dave --------- (I have been told that these two are deceased but I am not 100% certain of that) and Danny Dubcek.<br />Their efforts were rather primitive. The first two I mentioned basically just tried to forge signature cuts, until Ron ----- found a cache of B&W Hall of Fame plaks in a Cooperstown gift shop. The light went on for him and he thought he had found an excellent vehicle for forgeries. He cleared about $100K on that deal. 3 dealers were duped into being the primary buyers, one of whom I believe has passed away. As far as I know these 3 forgers worked on the East Coast, and were the "birth parents" of the forged sports autograph business, thus my familiarity with them. The skills of these 3 were limited at best.<br />The forgery business evolved over the years, Shelly knows the history of that better than I do.<br />Many more skillful forgers have risen up out of the muck since.<br />It is really not possible to say that any of them have ever produced perfect signatures, but as you have stated we have all been fooled. Some of the forgers are much better than others. If anyone claims that they have been 100% right all the time, well they are just lying. All of those who buy, sell and authenticate have made mistakes.<br />The learning curve for authenticators and dealers never stops. We just try to stay ahead of the bad guys as best as we can.<br />-- <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.<br />Unknown author <br />--<br />We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.<br />No retreat baby, no surrender.<br />The Boss