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Permalink Reply by Herman Darvick on November 30, 2011 at 4:55pm

In my opinion, the Reagan is a forgery. The Ford looks good at first glance but a few things bother me: (1) When Ford signed his name on a sheet of paper, a letter, even a photograph, he almost always slanted it up to the right, as much as a 30 degree angle, even on handwritten letters. (2) The final upstroke loop in the "G" as it went to the "e" hardly ever touched the first stroke of the "G" as it does in this one. (3) You could usually draw an imaginary base line under the entire signature, even slanted ones. In this one, the "Gerald" is on one level, the "R" is on a lower level, as is the "Ford." (4) Each letter in "Gerald" seems to have a different slant, especially the "Gera." It may be authentic or a carefully penned forgery.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on November 30, 2011 at 6:26pm

I agree. I held off commenting because I haven't really studied Reagan in detail, and he is very hard to authenticate because of all the autopen variations.  but what really stands out about the signature above is the height of the l and d.  they were virtually always the same height.  there are other issues but I see that as the biggest tell tale.  I am including one of my Reagan signatures, signed on a napkin, from a Republican fund raiser in 1984.

The Ford, at quick glance, looks ok, but Herman makes some good points.  But the Reagan is definitely off, in my opinion.

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Permalink Reply by john reznikoff on November 30, 2011 at 7:08pm

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/7962/apguide.htm a good site for autopen reference. Ford looks good.

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