Common Forgery Styles

Not all fake signatures are malicious. Secretarials and autopens are often distributed by offices acting in good faith. However, for a collector, distinguishing them is paramount.

1. The Autopen

An autopen is a machine that uses a real pen to physically replicate a signature matrix. Because a real pen and real ink are used, it can fool novice collectors.

Tells of an Autopen:

• Exact Match: If you find two signatures that overlay perfectly, they are autopens. Humans cannot reproduce a signature with sub-millimeter precision.
• The "Dot" at Start/End: The machine lowers the pen (leaving a dot of ink), moves, and lifts abruptly (leaving another dot).
• Uniform Pressure: The machine maintains constant pressure throughout the stroke, lacking the natural heavy downstrokes and light upstrokes of a human hand.
• Tremor: Some older machines create a distinct mechanical vibration or wobble in straight lines.

2. Secretarial Signatures

A secretary or proxy signs on behalf of the celebrity. These are incredibly common for fan mail responses (e.g., Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy).

Secretarials are often executed fluently (passing kinematic tests) but fail structural analysis because the secretary's internal geometry and golden ratios differ from the actual celebrity.

3. Stamps & Pre-Prints

A rubber stamp or a printed reproduction. Under magnification (loupe or microscope), pre-prints are composed of halftone dots (CMYK). Stamps often lack the 3D 'pooling' of ink at the edges of the stroke, and ink pad application often looks slightly mottled or weak.

4. Freehand Forgery

Someone attempting to mimic the signature visually. As discussed in our Kinematic Sequencing guide, these almost always fail due to slow execution speed, unnatural stops, and incorrect baseline adherence.