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Laser-copied signatures

What are the signs of a laser-copied forgery?
If we know what the original signature its copied from, then you may pick up on a laser-copy.
What else?

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 23, 2016 at 8:23pm

How can we tell if this signature isn't laser-copied, for example.

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Permalink Reply by sling on February 23, 2016 at 8:32pm

Are you talking about how to spot one online, or in person?

It is unlikely you will be able to tell the difference online, but in person it should be easy. L Laser scan will have very small identical circles or dots (DPI) making it up. Original ink will not have such dots and the ink will embed into the paper fibers.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 23, 2016 at 8:37pm

Online, but I haven't seen a laser-copy in person.

Thanks for the insight.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 23, 2016 at 8:44pm

I wonder if you could get a laser cutter to replicate a signature and then you get a marker or pen and copy the stencils, like a child's alphabet stencil.

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Permalink Reply by KarlKeaton on February 24, 2016 at 11:54am

I'll relate something that happened to me 10 years ago. I saw a UK copy of the Imagine single in picture sleeve autographed by John Lennon. The fact that Imagine wasn't released as a single in the UK until 1975 immediately entered my mind and made me suspicious but the signature looked both authentic and from the very late 70's.

As the seller lived an hours drive from me I purchased the item via BIN and told the seller that I wished to inspect the item in person before buying it with cash. He agreed and I arranged to visit him the next day.

When I arrived the item was in a frame, something that hadn't been mentioned by him before. The signature was apparently in black fountain pen but I decided that I would have to inspect it while removed from the frame. He complained that it was an inconvenience and I replied that if he had told me before hand that it was in a frame I would have made the stipulation before I travelled.

When he removed it from the frame it at first looked as if the picture sleeve had had ther back removed and it was indeed stuck firmly to the backing. I said what kind of idiot framer would cut such an item and mount it using glue?

When I looked closer the folds appeared to be wrong on the back of the picture sleeve and I reached the conclusion that it wasn't even an original sleeve but in fact a copy. Upon close inspection of the autograph it became obvious that it had been printed on, I could see faint ink spray marks around the signature. Obviously I did not go ahead with the purchase. Here are the only two pictures of it that I have, taken from the original Ebay ad.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 24, 2016 at 12:07pm

Thanks for sharing, you certainly dodged this one.
With 3d printers and technology advancing, i wouldn't be surprised what people can do.

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Permalink Reply by michelle on February 24, 2016 at 12:07pm

well good for you that you looked it over before purchase Karl! I was caught out recently by a mega expensive ebay purchase .

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Permalink Reply by KarlKeaton on February 24, 2016 at 12:17pm

Yes Paul I fear that technology will soon present a real problem when it comes to valuable autographs and that provenance will gain more importance in the future because of it.

Sorry to hear about that Michelle, is it something that you'd rather keep to yourself?

I forgot to mention that a few months later I came across the exact John Lennon exemplar he had copied on the Internet.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 24, 2016 at 12:27pm

Thats why provenance plays a big part these days, for the old school collectors it wasn't important at one time.

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Permalink Reply by michelle on February 24, 2016 at 1:16pm

there was no way of telling from the internet photo; - but when you look at a lazer printed copy , the pressure will be the same on every letter of the sig if that makes sense , the lettering is smooth and the sig floats on the top of the paper. I don't like remembering the whole situation; - it caused plenty of arguments; - the kind that start 'you have spent, all this money on a worthless lazer print...'