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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 Tone Capone on January 2, 2012 at 9:32pm

I would say the first and last are secraterial and the middle is authentic. The first and last one not only looks secraterial but maybe just flat out forgeries. I have a couple signed in person in Hendersonville TN in 2001 and cert...just like the center pic...with just a little more opening on the J...the families Johnny Cash web site even shows examples of the 1rst and last pic here as secraterials...

When he was in a calm situation and signing a hand full of photos as promo pics to hand out he took his time signing and it shows the nicer penmanship...

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on January 3, 2012 at 3:39am

Johnny's signature was very erratic when signing. Thats just how it was there would be major differences from signature to signature. Yet, he would maintain certain "tells" These "tells" appear in the 1st and 3rd items. Inside this thread are shown the known secretarials. You can also go to johnnycashstore.com to see other similar signed items.

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Permalink Reply by Tone Capone on January 3, 2012 at 9:36am

Thanks for the advice. I was comparing them to the ones that the family of Cash`s posted to help people know the diference between authentic and secraterial signatures. And they say the sigs with the rounded out J as here are secretarials....just going by what they say and show. Not trying to argue...cheers!

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on January 3, 2012 at 11:07am

Oh, I don't see you as arguing. I'm just passing along what I learned from my good friend and Mentor Bill Miller and even what Roger has posted here. This isn't an argument at all, just a debate and discussion of the topic.

Bill Miller owns Johnnycash.com and now has 2 Official Johnny Cash museums ( Corona, CA and Nashville, TN ). He is considered the official expert on Johnny Cash's autograph. The autographs on Johnnycashstore.com are sold by him.

Also, there is a good book out called "House of Cash" by Johnny's son John Carter Cash. The book is filled with reproductions of Johnny's writing ( which was very nice and formal ) it also shows the many, MANY variations to Johnny's signature.

Have you read the entire thread here? There are some non-authentic variations shown as well as Many fabulous authentic autographs.

Someone else on this site said it best at one time In essence, it was that..."the family probably doesn't want the general public to know that Johnny's autograph that came through the mail or sold at the house of Cash store was a secretarial"

Also, have you looked at all of the items on Johnnycashstore.com? Bill has some amazing items for sale and they also show the endless variations.

Johnny Cash is one of America's Legends. Collectiing his autograph was somethingthat people did from his very early career. Imagine the amount of fan mail that he received on a daily basis from the 1950's until 2003.

Thankfully, we have this forum, as well as various collectors and experts to make this discussion well rounded.

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Permalink Reply by Tone Capone on January 3, 2012 at 8:15pm

Very good info! I need to upload a couple I have for opinion...especially from Bill. Thank you kindly...

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Permalink Reply by Tone Capone on January 3, 2012 at 9:39am

you are right...his signature was a bit erratic, the last year or so due to illness. Prior to that if he was in a calm setting signing a stack of photos for a show or such...he took his time. Just as many celebs do before big events. Hope that helps....cheers!!!

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on January 3, 2012 at 5:06am

Here is one from Johnnycashstore.com that matches the 3rd item above quite well and shows a nice variation of Johnny's signature while still following the same pattern.

http://www.johnnycashstore.com/product1456.html

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Permalink Reply by Peter Lougheed on January 2, 2012 at 8:28pm

The seller of this eBay item has already sold nine other Johnny Cash "signed" albums in the last few weeks, all for $65 plus shipping. They all look like garbage to me. Anybody else's thoughts?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Johnny-Cash-Signed-LP-RING-FIRE-/1306253290...