The only reason the Hancock has any credibility at all -and it's almost certainly not his but his secretaries- is that those documents were very common. They were used for land grants, appointments, proclamations.. Darn near any situation that the government wanted to give out a big showy document. The secretary probably signed hundreds a week, handwriting the details (Joe jones is a fine fellow having been master of the will bucket for 20 years)The actual government official would only sign ones that were truly important, Like promotions to General or cabinet positions or something of that nature.
The signature is in the right place, and the parchment or paper used is very hard to get ink out of. So finding an original and removing a signature of little importance is just too much work for a forger. There's enough old unwritten on paper around that a hand written reciept fragment would be much easier.
Of course, land grants are often under a hundred, and a governors proclamation or something of that sort probably less.
Steve B
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