Ruth??

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by shelly

One thing we do know is that it was authenticated . Leaf will only allow a piece to be put into that kind of holder with authentication from one of the famous duo.

Well.. I have seen cards like this with cuts replaced too; tampered with. But yes, if it is authenticated by one of the "big 2", that is a good starting point...just not always the case(pun intended).

[Runscott]

The ink and pen speed look good, so if David says it's an authentic 'rushed' signature, I believe him. The opinions of JSA and PSA are, as always, irrelevant...to me, anyway.

I would like to see a guide to common 'rushed signatures'. There was a Gehrig David posted a while back that was very intriguing, and I would assume that most Gehrig rushed signatures would have a similar look. This is the first Ruth of that type that I've seen - it's interesting that the 'a' is open, which is sometimes a forger tell, but apparently also an indicator of Ruth being in a hurry. Another type of signature that it would be good to have guidance on, are the ones that were signed at an angle - I've seen some autograph book pages where it was very obvious that all were real, but all were also signed from a strange position.

[ATP]

This is a little off topic of Ruth but still in regards to rushed signatures. In my time of collecting, the "king" of the rushed signature was JFK. Some of his rushed signatures were almost not believable, had they not been witnessed and obtained by the original owner themselves. I even had one that seriously looked like a pair of butt cheeks that he drew, and barely more than that. It was so bad that in reality it wasn't even sellable. I think I might have a scan of it somewhere...