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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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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on July 23, 2012 at 8:18am

@ William,

Your guitar is AMAZING!! WOW!!! What a signature. Congrats!

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Permalink Reply by William C. Riggle on July 29, 2012 at 10:44am

Thanks! I feel blessed to have it. I am a fan of Johnny Cash too. I guess I'll just hang on to it. It makes a great conversation piece every once in a while. As of now it's just a part of my "retirement program" but someday I would like to display it for others to enjoy, maybe in a new venture like a Bar or something. Two things are for sure, 1 there will never be anymore signed guitars by Johnny Cash and 2 It can only go up in value.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on July 29, 2012 at 10:27am

Here is a JSA "certified" item wrongly certified as signed by Johnny Cash & june Carter cash

eBay item # 140805874251

http://www.ebay.com/itm/140805874251?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2...

In reality, this is signed by John Carter Cash & June Carter Cash.

The "authenticator" should have known this.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 26, 2012 at 2:17pm

Here is a JSA Certified NON-authentic Johnny Cash autograph. I wonder who rendered the opinion on this one?

http://pristineauction.com/auctions/index/details/id/62454/Johnny-C...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 26, 2012 at 3:11pm

JSA supposedly uses a consensus of sorts for authentication. 2-3 authenticators vote on each piece. Maybe Roger can explain how it works. I don't know the process when they authenticate at shows, though, and I can't tell how old the cert is...can you from the serial number?

I don't know Cash, but from looking at examples in this discussion, I see why you don't like it.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 26, 2012 at 3:27pm

Sadly, I don't know enough about the serial # system they use. I feel bad for Pristine auctions. They are doing their due-diligence and bringing in JSA and trying to get truly authentic items. I'm 100% sure that Roger didn't cert this one though.

The consensus process is interesting. I wonder if JSA brings 3 actual authenticators to Pristine's offices when they come to review items? As far as music items, should they even be rendering opinions without Roger's input? Hopefully not.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 26, 2012 at 4:19pm

Are you sure Pristine brings in authenticators, Brandon? I didn't even consider that they offered auction LOAs/COAs. I thought they offered only lots fully certified by the authenticators mentioned.

I like JSA's consensus system overall. I think that ideally, every autograph should be seen by more than one expert in that field before it's certified authentic. Not just for because I think authentication will be more accurate, but because it largely eliminate claims of conflict of interest (which I don't think exists with legitimate authenticators).

But I am concerned, period, that general authenticators (those that don't specialize) are not as reliable in certain areas as those that do specialize. Some people are so good, talented and experienced that they can authenticate almost everything with a high degree of confidence.

But that's RARE...and I think that major authenticators need to think less about the production line and more about each collector and dealer depending on their determinations.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shepherd on September 26, 2012 at 6:09pm

Brandon, I just saw your collection at the beginning of this thread. It's amazing. The manuscript is worth 100 autographs as far as I'm concerned. The historic value alone is priceless. Cash was so thoughtful at the end of his life especially when it came to religion. He seemed to be so full of guilt and I feel that the lyrics are in some way a personal psychological comparison between the way that he interpreted the end of his own life and the life of Christ. Amazing to say the least. You are right to treasure it.

By the way, I can hear Indy screaming "That manuscript belongs in a museum!"

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on September 26, 2012 at 7:43pm

HA!!! Yes, It is a treasure. You captured it's significance perfectly. He was expressing himself in ways that only he could. Ripping away at humanity at the soul of man and faith.