Moe Berg passport photo/help

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

Hi. I won this in an ebay auction a little over a year ago. It's supposed to be the 1940 passport photo for Moe Berg. Wondering if anyone knows where I can find an image of Berg's 1940ish passport for comparison's sake? And does PSA authenticate stuff like this? It measures a little under 2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches.

Kind of a neat item, assuming it's authentic. It was an impulse buy shortly after reading "The Catcher Was a Spy." Fascinating guy. Bizarre life, but intriguing.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Rob

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Posted By: Clint

It's on the cover of the book "The Catcher Was a Spy". I believe the original passport sold in the Halper sale and there's a picture of it in the catalog.
Clint

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

That's not the same photograph. That one appears to have been taken when he was younger. He's also wearing a light jacket in the book cover passport photo, and a dark jacket in mine. Maybe mine was for a later passport.

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Posted By: Clint

Rob, your photo has been colored in or tinted. I think it's the same photo. They probably made more than one passport photo, usually they make dupes and use one. Look at his hair and eyebrows, you can really see it there.

Clint

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Posted By: Clint

Rob, just pulled the Halper book and you are right. They are similar but different. Sorry, can't help you with the this one.

Clint

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

No problem. Thanks anyway.
As for the tinting of my photo, that's just my scanner, which ain't the greatest. The photo doesn't appear to have been altered.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Items from Berg's estate have been on the market, so stuff like passport photos and personal CIA documents are floating around. Lelands, for one, sold a lot of Berg personal items. I don't recall this photo, but know Lelands sold passport related and travel documents. So it's plausible to find a genuine Berg passport photo on the market.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

US passport photo size is uniform and set by law. Can't quote you the 1940s size, but the current is 2x2 inches.

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Posted By: Alan

Rob -

Contact Linda McCarthy at http://www.historyisahoot.com/index.htm

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If the photo is vintage/original and the correct size for a passport photo, that's significant evidence. Simply because 2x2 is not an ordinary size or any other use. Survey may show that 95% of 2x2 portrait photos in existence are passport photos, because the size is rarely used for other purpose.

Size can be evidence of provenance. I remember someone on eBay was selling an original 1888 Joseph Hall MLB team cabinet and the seller said the photo came from the estate of one of the star players. The cabinet was a very rare oversized version which supported the seller's ownership claim. This is because the jumbo versions would usually be made for VIPs like the team's owner, manager or players, and not the general public. The size made it believable the photo was owned by a player. It turned out the seller was an estate official for the player's granddaughter.

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate it. I'll contact Linda.

Does PSA slab these kinds of things?

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Posted By: scgaynor

If it came from Lelands, it could have been in this lot, there was a ton of little photos like that in there.

http://www.lelands.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=81118