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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 Peter Lougheed on January 6, 2012 at 10:20pm

No problem.....I think.

Is it possible that our posting links to fraudulent auctions on eBay gets noticed by the folks running the eBay site?

It would be nice to think so.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on January 3, 2012 at 11:30am

Just to add to the discussion, Here is what I consider to be a secretarial signature, Please note the writing style that doesn't match known authentic examples of Johnny's writing:

Now, here are some authentic Johnny Cash autographs:

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Permalink Reply by Peter Lougheed on January 5, 2012 at 10:18am

Here are some great June Carter Cash items.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/130623602695?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_t...

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Permalink Reply by Mike on January 8, 2012 at 3:17pm

hey everyone,

I have been reading this thread and even threw in my 2 cents a couple of times. i have a couple authenticated Cash signatures. But this one I never got around to having anyone look at it. i got it around 2000 I think. what do you all think ??

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Permalink Reply by William C. Riggle on February 26, 2012 at 1:08pm

Here is the pic of my Johnny Cash autographed guitar. As I shared in an earlier post, I won the Guitar in a contest I entered in back in the late 90's at EarXtacy Records in Louisville ky. It was a contest sponsered by Sony Records. I entered while Christmas shopping at the store. Got a letter a few months later telling me I won and to look for the guitar to arrive shortly. It did and I stuck it in the closet for all those years. My question is how can I have it authinticated. And if I do ever decide to sell it where could I get the most exposure and price for it? Thanks! Bill

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 26, 2012 at 1:42pm

Wow!

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Permalink Reply by J.Seah on July 23, 2012 at 9:37am

Your letter from Sony Records is your best provenance for this signed guitar. Great piece of Johnny Cash signed memorabilia!!!

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Permalink Reply by Mitch O`Driscoll on April 1, 2012 at 2:32pm

Hi, I found a book at the recycle station. Man in Black. On the first page there is an autograph. Heres a pic. Please post your comments on its possible authenticity.

Mitch

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on April 1, 2012 at 5:51pm

Unless this is some other secretarial I'm not aware of, it looks pretty good to me.

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Permalink Reply by Nickolas Tsui on July 17, 2012 at 7:57am

JC signed bookplate from his autobiography tour. I'm a pool player so I had it framed up with a 30 year old 'Baron' ad. The backdrop is billiard table cloth

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on July 22, 2012 at 4:49pm

Here are two PSA "certified" Johnny Cash autographs that are not authentic :(

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Johnny-Cash-Signed-8x10-Photo-PSA-DNA-/1506...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JOHNNY-CASH-Deceased-Signed-INSCRIBED-8x10-...

I wonder who the authenticator was for these items?

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on July 23, 2012 at 8:12am

Ok, now that I am caught up... I must tell everyone of my wonderful week-end with Bill Miller ( owner of Johnny Cash.com, Johnny's friend, and my daughter's God Father ) & his beautiful family, Johnny Cash's family ( Sister Joanne, Brother Tommy, Neice and former Business manager Kelly ), as well as Luther Perkin's Widow Margie. We all got together in Nashville to see the progress on the forthcoming Johnny Cash Museum ( opening in a few months ).

For Johnny Cash fans. This will be a beautiful state-of-the-art museum right in the heart of (off of Broadway)Nashville. The work going into the artifact displays is amazing. I hope that all of Johnny's fans will be able to visit the site and re-live Johnny's life and music career when the Museum opens.

This museum will have all of the technology of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Grammy Museum, NASCAR Hall of Fame etc. As well as the look and feel of Johnny's country roots.

For more info, check out the following link

http://www.johnnycash.com/news/?id=1

Also, The Museum store will be opening soon. From what I understand, the store will offer a limited selection of authentic Johnny Cash autographs.