Hank Aaron Opinions
 

I have been working on training my eyes on Hank Aaron signatures as I look to pick up my first Hank Aaron piece. (This is the fun part of the hobby to me!) It has been fun digging through all the Aaron threads here, reading up on all the Secretarial TTM stuff, and scouring through hundreds of exemplars.

That being said, I'm wanting to verify if I am on the right track!

Here are 3 examples I have considered picking up. Any thoughts on these are appreciated:

https://i.imgur.com/3NK2TKy.png

I am very confident that #1 is real, about 99% sure that #2 is real, and fairly certain #3 is real. I have noticed that when writing out the full "Hank", there is often a very faint line in the "k" that shows how swiftly he's signing it. This is evident in #1 and #2, and something that I have yet to see a forger pull off correctly. (It's similar to Joe Dimaggio's "e--D" connecting swift line if anyone knows what I'm talking about).

#3 doesn't have the tell-tale signs of speed like #1 & #2, and is also the "Hal" version instead of "Hank" (which I have a harder time on). I'm still learning on these, but letter formation/spacing/baseline seem correct on it.

Any thoughts/dicussion is appreciated, thanks!

I would agree with 1 and 2. Not as sure about 3. If I was buying, I would easily buy the first two and probably pass on the third. Pen pressure looks slower on the third and letters are scrunched. Just doesn't feel right.

Thanks for the reply Eskimo, I agree number 3 pen pressure looks slower and there's not those nice signs of "speed", but the problem is this appears to be a common theme for this "style" autograph. Here are some PSA/DNA, JSA, or 100% verified autos to compare with the #3 from above (#3 is in top left):

https://i.imgur.com/y4iiaQE.png

These all appear to be done by the same hand IMO.

Also here is a photo explaining what I mentioned earlier about that swift line in the "k" of Hank, which is a nice tell-tale trait I have picked up on many authentic signatures:

https://i.imgur.com/WAhNvMY.png

I think all 3 are good. I have a "Hal" signed hat and it took me weeks of looking at different Hank auto versions and examples online before I felt confident to buy it.

But, that being said, if it was my $$$ I'd bite on the first 2 before the 3rd. Just because the most fakes I've seen lately have been the shorter hal version.



Hank is tough, his sig has changed so much over the years (and now it's rare to get a new one that is half legible) but ,with my money, I'd probably buy the first 2 no prob and the last one if it was the only option of the 3 to purchase.

I like the "Stank" Aaron in #2 best .
I did several shows and private signings with Aaron in the 1990s and that form of his signature ( Hank looking like Stank as we called it then ) was a staple of his during that time. Age and time and signing thousands of autographs has changed his signature again to a different form now.

Just my two cents: all three look good.....the only question is #3 (as others have noted) because I don't like the way he finished the first "A" in Aaron.

Thanks for the input guys. I actually ended up picking #3, after comparing it with tons of exemplars I am very confident in it.

I agree dj, it's weird how he can go from #1 and #2 with major signs of speed, to #3 being slow with big "stops" (like the "a" you are talking about). I've seen a lot of examples where it looks like that though, even the black JSA one to the right of the graphic I made has the same first "A".

When you look at that comparison closer, you can even pick up on traits of where his strokes are "bolder" on certain parts of certain letters from pen pressure. You can see this across multiple examples (circled in red). Also formation of certain letters, such as the "l" in "Hal", is identical (circled in green), and the "n" (circled in blue). Definitely same hand IMO.

https://i.imgur.com/qEgM1I8.png