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Autopen Autographs

Autopen autographs haven been around for a long time, and can be difficult to spot with the naked eye.

An autopen is a machine that is used to simulate an authentic autograph. The machine was developed in the early 1800's and has been used extensively in politics and by some athletes and celebrities that generate high-volumes of fan mail.

I have had the misfortune to receive autopen signatures for Nolan Ryan, Wayne Gretzky, George H.W. Bush, and Muhammad Ali, to name a few. Former U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld provided new controversy to the use of this machine in 2004 when it was revealed that letters of soldiers killed in action were not hand-signed by Rumsfeld.

Unfortunately, many politicians and celebrities continue to embrace the use of this machine, especially to respond to through the mail autograph requests.

A method you can use to discern a mechanical signature from an authentic autograph is the appearance of horizontal movement of the pen on a vertical line of the signature. This movement tends to make autopen ones look shaky and unnatural.

Another trick to use for spotting autopens is to look for a pronounced dot at the beginning, or especially the end of the signature. This results from pressure being applied or released on the ink by the lifting or placing of the object the machine is using.

For both these methods, I like to scan in the autographed item I have in question, and then zoom in to 400% or so to really look at the signature.

Another way of spotting an autopen autograph is to compare to examples of authenticated signatures, or other collectors through the mail success examples. An autopen signature is exactly identical, and many celebrities that send their own item back "signed" will many times set the item in the autopen machine to sign in the same spot.