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Nelson Mandela signed Madiba book real?

Hi I'm new here and just recently acquired a book from ebay possibly with Nelson Mandela's signature in it signed with felt tip marker. It's called Madiba: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela A Celebration. It's a look through of his life and the inscription inside says it was presented during a De Beers golf tournament in 1999 to support his Children's fund. However I couldn't find much about this book or the event online. I also read here that ebay and abebooks has sold forged books before. I was wondering if any of you could help me authenticate this or who I should go to. I'm willing to spend some on appraising it. Just don't know where to start. Let me know if i need more pics or info.

Thanks for your time!

kenistod

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Permalink Reply by J.Seah on August 18, 2018 at 9:19pm

I don’t think this is authentic. Here is an authentic Madiba book signed by Nelson Mandela and the author.

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Permalink Reply by keni on August 18, 2018 at 9:28pm

Thanks for replying J! I'm new with collecting autographs so I'm just trying to understand. Is the book even real? I saw it's printed by ABC press in Cape Town and Amazon sells it. So if the book was real how is there a fake signature? Or are forgers really good?

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20180818_171422.jpg, 2.5 MB

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Permalink Reply by keni on August 18, 2018 at 9:33pm

Also abebooks.com is selling a book with the exact description for $890. here https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=18454720422&s...

is that a fake you think?

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Permalink Reply by goodcat on August 18, 2018 at 11:27pm

I'm not up on Mandela sigs but...

Looking at the 2 examples, I would say they are very close and possibly authentic.

Take a thin pen and a thick pen, and they match pretty well.

Look at all the letter formations and spacing and heights.... not too far off IMO

The OP sig "could" be authentic

More eyes needed on this one

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Permalink Reply by keni on August 18, 2018 at 11:33pm

Thanks for looking goodcat! I'm glad you see similarities. I'm obviously stumped but this gives me some hope then. Hopefully there'll be more eyes on this like you said.

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Permalink Reply by goodcat on August 18, 2018 at 11:34pm

good luck

I'd love to have his sig one day

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Permalink Reply by keni on August 18, 2018 at 11:37pm

Thanks goodcat. I hope you get his as well!

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Permalink Reply by goodcat on August 18, 2018 at 11:41pm

cheers mate

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Permalink Reply by James on August 19, 2018 at 1:27am

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Permalink Reply by James on August 19, 2018 at 1:23am

Kenistod, I truly hate to rain on your parade. Unfortunately, to me, your Mandela signature appears to have telltale signs of an autopen signature. Notice the shakiness and all the little dots in the lines. Those are characteristics of an autopen. I hope I’m wrong, but this looks like it was probably signed by a machine.

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Permalink Reply by goodcat on August 19, 2018 at 1:41am

I'm not going to disagree with your observations James because I'm not an autopen authority

But...

Have a look at the whole signature from beginning to end

It starts out thick and heavily inked and then fades about half way through to the end. Which is almost a normal pen feature no?

I see the jaggedness and splotches as you see them

And it's not smooth from start to finish

You could be right

there are some folks on here with better eyes for this

hope they come for a look

now I'm very curious and will follow this one

I'll tell ya what bugs me is that it's for sale on Amazon... but they have the best return policy of almost all online services. So... hmmmm

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Permalink Reply by keni on August 19, 2018 at 11:07am

Hi goodcat thanks for your continued input! I added a better picture with James reply. This might help with the autopen theory? There's a definite line in the middle. Don't know if autopens use felt pens or not.