Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on May 3, 2011 at 1:39pm

Hi Matt:

 

This does not appear to match any Autopen patterns, however I suspect it may be a Helene von Damme secretarial signature.  Your signature has all the markers for a secretarial. For more details, see Bill White's signature study comparing Reagan vs von Damme.

Permalink Reply by Matt Crum on May 4, 2011 at 6:17am

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!

Permalink Reply by Herman Darvick on May 4, 2011 at 5:50am

Matt, it seems that what you have is a facsimile signed Ronald Reagan. It most probably reproduces an authentic Reagan signature. Although his secretary Helene von Damm, was very good at signing his name, the formation of the open top "a" in "Ronald" is completely different from her "a" in "Ronald" which was always a "looped" closed "a".  The lack of a left-slanted "e" in "Reagan" bothers me a bit, but he didn't always slant his "e" in his inscriptions such as in "Best" or "Regards." In either case, without personally examining it, in my opinion, your "Honorary Citizen" document is not actually signed - I believe it is a printed facsimile. --- Herman

Permalink Reply by Matt Crum on May 4, 2011 at 6:18am

thanks so much for taking the time to help me out!  One question, would a facsimile fade out the same way a real signature would

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on May 4, 2011 at 6:43am

I noticed the fading myself and that's why I thought it was probably hand-signed, but secretarial.  Impossible to tell with certainty through a scan however.