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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

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on November 22, 2011 at 10:24pm

This item seems to match well with exemplars that Roger Epperson posted as secretarial, Peter.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Lougheed on November 23, 2011 at 7:41am

Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by JJKANDLAK on November 22, 2011 at 9:27pm

I picked up a Cash signed 8 X 10 on eBay tonight. Item was just listed..I typed in "newly listed" under the search and I was viewer #1. Ran it by eBay's "quick opinion" for $7.49. They must be working late tonight because about an hour later I got a "likely geniune" response. Enclosed is photo..what does everyone think? thanks! Jim

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on November 22, 2011 at 10:10pm

The photo is kind of grainy and taken a little far away from the autograph. That said, I'm not expert but I think I see some positive traits. Unless this is another one of Roger's secretarials which PSA and people like me are completely oblivious to as of yet. It seems like you get lucky with deals. Sometimes I wonder how PSA gives opinions on grainy/bad pictures on eBay.

Or how do they positively authenticate autographs which aren't real signatures like this one with PSA certification.

As I'm sure you guys could tell, it's Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

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Permalink Reply by Brenda McLeod on November 23, 2011 at 2:27am

Brick--that's one vague autograph!

JJ--the "ash," looks like most of the "ash's," that were deemed authentic when I was shopping around. Good for you!

Brenda

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Permalink Reply by JJKANDLAK on November 23, 2011 at 5:12am

The seller had a price of $45 on it as a "buy it now." Ideally I would have liked to have run it past Roger first, but I felt it would be gone if I waited very long. I'm still surprised at how quickly the PSA Quick Opinion responded. After it arrives I'll send it into PSA to see if it passes their further scrutiny. If so, it'll go on the wall next to my Cash signed album. One of the reasons why I bought this was the sloppy last name "Cash." It seems to me at least that most of the secretarials are much clearer in the lettering that this one.

Thanks!

Jim

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on November 23, 2011 at 5:32am

I'm no expert on Cash, but from what I've seen in this thread, it does not appear to be secretarial. So it's either real or a decent forge. For $45, I might have rolled the dice too.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on November 23, 2011 at 5:34am

Are there dealers and in-person people who are part of PSAs registered/trusted program or something? In other words, whatever they send in and claim was signed in-person, it gets certed?

Otherwise, I don't see how something like this could ever be certed based on the "mark" alone.

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on November 23, 2011 at 6:24am

Here's the piece. With the sticker, coa and the number matches the verification online for a Brian Wilson signed photograph.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRIAN-WILSON-AUTOGRAPHED-SIGNED-BEACH-BOYS-...

It's from wishonastarautographs. An in-person company who uses PSA to cert all their stuff. Regardless, the certificate says examined and certified. Is there any way for PSA to say conclusively it's their opinion that Brian Wilson made that curvy line unless they saw him sign it. And another discussion... is a curvy line actually a signature?

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on November 23, 2011 at 7:50am

I suppose this warrants a thread by itself. But same with the Al Pacino's and a number of signers today. Are these little doodles a signature? Think if they wrote "No!" when asked for an autograph instead of a line or a circle, would we consider that a signature or consider it that they're not obliging to sign their name. A curvy line isn't a name. I don't know how you authenticate it with any certainty either.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 23, 2011 at 8:29am

Ahhh...now that's a great question, Brick. In most cases a "curvy line" on a piece of paper isn't a signature to me. It's a mark a celeb makes to get a professional collector out of their face.

I understand how some can be identified, but would I want it? No way.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on November 27, 2011 at 3:34pm

WOW! Not sure why PSA or any authenticator would accept this and certify it. Even if it is real, no way can an expert be 100% sure if it wasn't signed in front of them. For the validity of authentication as a whole, these types of signatures shouldn't be certified. Yes, that includes Pacino's autograph or other signatures that are simply a mark rather than a typical rushed signature.