Help with Mordecai Brown Check

[JimStinson]

Between 1920-1945 Brown ran a gas station in Terre Haute. Quite a few years back a cache of checks related to this enterprise hit the market. The checks were all endorsed checks not personal checks. There were quite a few and were absorbed quickly into the hobby. Slightly more than half were endorsed by Brown on the portion of the reverse of the check were you would normally endorse a check , the others were endorsed by Brown's wife using his name.
The differences in the signatures were obvious to the semi trained eye. But all that I remember seeing (I'm sure I didn't see ALL of them) but I saw a lot of them. Were signed at the top endorsement portion. Either by Brown himself or the Mrs.
The checks signed by his wife were often mistaken as having been signed by the Hall of Fame pitcher. Once most collectors had figured it out , half checks began to surface with a forged Brown signature on the lower portion of the reverse of the check. What they were doing is cutting the checks signed by Mrs Brown in half and endorsing the bottom portion making it appear as if he himself had endorsed the check.
Authentic Mordecai Brown endorsed checks are NOT rare but his autograph is one of those that has spiked in price in the last several years with prices ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 depending on the seller.
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jim@stinsonsports.com