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Autograph's Johnny Cash Signature Study — Be Part of It!

Has there ever been a nicer, more humble, more fan friendly superstar than Johnny Cash?

Johnny was the Babe Ruth of Country Music—the top-ranking Country artist of all time and the most loved. And Johnny loved his fans as much as they love him. So while like the Babe, Cash signed untold numbers of autographs, the supply could never meet demand...and probably never will.

Fans who couldn't meet Cash in person often requested autographs through the mail. The common belief is that he personally autographed those requests. But between his demanding touring schedule and later, his failing health and vision, it seems impossible that he could have signed even half of the mail he received.

A growing number of collectors and dealers now believe that many if not most Johnny Cash through the mail autographs were secretarial. We want to see if we can identify any secretarial styles, and at the same time build a reference collection of no-question genuine Cash exemplars to help identifying forgeries.

Are There Johnny Cash Secretarials?
If So, How Do We Identify Them?
Help Find Out!

You can be an important part of the study in three ways:

Upload into this discussion images of Johnny Cash autographs that you personally received through the mail, and tell us when you received them. (The year is fine, but if you know the date, even better.)
Upload images of Johnny's autographs that YOU saw signed by Johnny yourself. Include the date or at least year, too. If you didn't see it signed yourself (like pre-signed ones sold or given away at shows), please don't upload it.
As more and more images are uploaded, see if you can identify characteristics that are commonly found on Johnny's through the mail autographs that are rarely if ever seen on ones signed in person.

With your help, we can identify Cash secretarials if they're out there. Over time this should increase the value of genuine Johnny Cash autographs, and help protect future fans and collectors against autographs that aren't authentic.

Once we finish this phase of the study, we'll go on to identifying genuine Johnny Cash autographs from forgeries.

Let's go!

Tags: Johnny, autographs, cash, genuine, mail, secretarial, the, through

12 members like this

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Patrick Batson on December 6, 2016 at 3:09pm

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Permalink Reply by Alex Riffle on December 6, 2016 at 3:35pm

So, you think it looks authentic?

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Permalink Reply by marc e on December 11, 2016 at 11:49am

johnny signed for me probaly over 100 times or more one off the nicest guys u will ever meet

Attachments: No photo uploads here

IMAG1013.jpg, 3.7 MB

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Permalink Reply by marc e on December 11, 2016 at 11:51am

back of handbill

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IMG_20160414_0005.jpg, 618 KB

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Permalink Reply by Danny Hurd on August 20, 2017 at 7:20pm

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Permalink Reply by Danny Hurd on August 20, 2017 at 7:22pm

What do you guys think of this one?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 20, 2017 at 8:02pm

I'm not a Johnny Cash pro, but I like it! If you're thinking of buying it, or bought it in the last few months or from a dealer that guarantees authenticity even years ago, I'd get an online opinion from Roger Epperson at REAL, the leading music authenticator just to make sure. It'll only cost you $15.

If you've owned it for a while, I'd be proud of it and not worry about it.

What's the story?