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Hi, I've just joined this site and was wondering if anyone with a greater knowledge of this kind of thing would be able to tell if this was an original signature of Frank Sinatra or a fake. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Gareth.
Sorry photo isn't that great but it looks to have crossover pen marks at certain points.

Tags: Frank, Ratpack, Sinatra

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Looks to be a secretarial signature.

I agree.
Does that mean it was done on his behalf by someone else? Sorry for my ignorance on this.

Yes, he probably received so much fan mail that he had someone on his staff sign on his behalf.

Agreed, see secretarials 22, 27 and 29 UACC study.

Exactly. A secretarial autograph is not a blatant forgery. It's known as a non-malicious fake. It's when a secretary or other handler signs things like fan mail for the star. Years ago (and still today) a fan would get back a signed photograph or other item in the mail from the star and assume they had a real autograph when in fact they did not.

A secretarial is different from an outright malicious forgery by a seller who does it just to steal money from your wallet.

Precisely, not done with the same motive as a forger. Just like Gleason secretarials, if you wrote to the star at that time this is what you would receive. Fortunately, these secretarials clearly distinguish themselves from modern forgeries in several ways, and they have the advantage of age as well. Some are actually collectable IMO. 

I agree. I do believe some secretarials have halfway decent monetary value...depending on the star. One example of a valuable secretarial are the "Babe Ruth" signed baseballs from the weekly Sinclair Oil radio contest. Winners from this radio contest in the mid-1930s were sent baseballs that for years were believed to have been signed by the Babe. Years later it was determined that these balls were all signed by a ghost signer. Today, ones in decent condition sell for up to $800 or so.

Also, JFK secretarial autographs do sometimes sell for a few hundred dollars even with the buyer knowing that the item is a secretarial autograph.

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