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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 Juha Kakkuri on January 13, 2018 at 11:39am

Thanks for your reply. I had my doubts about the photo. The in person autographs are from their pressconference.

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Permalink Reply by stefaan on November 17, 2013 at 2:00am

This concert poster is signed in 1988, not for me but obtained by a good friend of mine, 100% authentic.

Signed by Johnny Cash, June Carter cash, Helena, Anita and Carlene Carter.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Batson on November 17, 2013 at 6:13am

Nice.

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Permalink Reply by Micko on February 23, 2014 at 12:05pm

Hi, Here's my Johnny and June Carter Cash to add to this valuable thread.

Bought through the good people at Markus Brandes Autographs. Described as:

'Card signed 6x4 inch in black sharpie obtained in-person at Grand Hotel, Berlin 12th November 1991.'

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Permalink Reply by Harlan Kruger on March 24, 2014 at 6:49am

Here is my most prized country music autograph, it is a framed apx 2ft by 3ft Highwaymen Lithograph that was signed in black sharpie by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristopherson, The Johnny Cash Signature is a little shaky as it was signed towards his last days. I have the history behind how each signature was acquired and it has been authenticated by psa. I had it professionally framed last fall. I have only ever seen two other posters like this that were signed, one went for $5900 and one for $6300

Attachments: No photo uploads here