How to Spot Fakes at Home

1. The "Hesitation" Check

When a person signs their own name, it relies on muscle memory. The pen moves rapidly and smoothly. When a forger copies a signature, they are *drawing* it. This fundamental difference leaves physical evidence.

Look closely at the curves and loops. A drawn signature will often have tiny pooling marks where the forger hesitated or stopped to check their reference material. Authentic signatures have smooth, continuous ink flow, even if the signature itself is messy.

2. Tracing Marks (The Impression)

A common forgery technique on photographs involves tracing over an authentic signature with a stylus to create an indent, then going over that indent with a pen.

Hold the item at a sharp angle to a strong light source (raking light). If you see a physical indentation in the paper that extends *past* the end of the ink stroke, or diverges from the ink path, it is likely a traced forgery.

3. Anachronistic Ink

The Sharpie marker was invented in 1964. If you have a Babe Ruth signed baseball (died 1948) signed in thick, modern felt-tip marker, it is a forgery. Always cross-reference the era of the signer with the commercial availability of the writing instrument.