Please help, fake or real Babe Ruth

[Bugsy]

I posted a photo of mine earlier (damaged H.). Anyway, I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I put it under a black light last night. Modern paper illuminates under a black light because of chemicals used in the manufacturing process, while paper from the 1920s should not. I put an early postcard with the similar coloring beside the wrapper to show the difference.

Not only does the wrapper illuminate under the light, look at the creases. They are even brighter. If the wax, or whatever coating is on the paper, were stripped away, I am sure this sucker would really light up under a black light.

What do you guys think of this? Does this pretty much guarantee that this is a fake?

Thanks.

Chris

BTW, the whole wrapper illuminated under black lighting, but my camera didn't capture it well. No flash in a dark room with a cheap camera made it a little tricky.

[smotan_02]

Amazing, great work. That would be a good practice for the auction house.

[gnaz01]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

I posted a photo of mine earlier (damaged H.). Anyway, I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I put it under a black light last night. Modern paper illuminates under a black light because of chemicals used in the manufacturing process, while paper from the 1920s should not. I put an early postcard with the similar coloring beside the wrapper to show the difference.

Not only does the wrapper illuminate under the light, look at the creases. They are even brighter. If the wax, or whatever coating is on the paper, were stripped away, I am sure this sucker would really light up under a black light.

What do you guys think of this? Does this pretty much guarantee that this is a fake?

Thanks.

Chris

BTW, the whole wrapper illuminated under black lighting, but my camera didn't capture it well. No flash in a dark room with a cheap camera made it a little tricky.

Chris, is that the one you bought from Leon??

[Bugsy]

Originally Posted by gnaz01

Chris, is that the one you bought from Leon??

Yes, it is. It failed the blacklight test so I can't imagine there is any way that it could be genuine.

I seems like a lot of others had the damaged H wrapper, so it would be nice to have a few more voices chime in. Anyone else test theirs under a black light?

Thanks again!

Chris

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

Yes, it is. It failed the blacklight test so I can't imagine there is any way that it could be genuine.

I seems like a lot of others had the damaged H wrapper, so it would be nice to have a few more voices chime in. Anyone else test theirs under a black light?

Thanks again!

Chris

Hi Chris
I haven't followed this thread for a few days. If it failed the test then just shoot me an email and let me know what you paid and I will fully refund you. I need to check my current one too, I guess. My email is leonl@flash.net. Everything I ever sell has a lifetime warranty for authenticity. My apologies too. Of course I had no idea. Also, I would like to get it back to keep as a comparison. I will pay shipping both ways too.... thanks...

[HBroll]

Well I put my wrapper under the black light expecting the worst but to my surprise it did not light up. I put 2 reprint Exhibit cards on on each side of the wrapper and in the photo you can see both of them light up but the wrapper does not. My wrapper has the damaged "H". I wish I knew about the black light years ago when I bought those fake Exhibits. Here are the photos:

[PhilNap]

Legendary has one for auction. Lot 1754

[glchen]

I've been reviewing this thread. Is this a good summary of the points here?

Definitely determines authenticity
-------------------------------------------
(1) Black light test. Should not light up.


May help determine authenticity
--------------------------------------
(1) Should be wax paper and not regular paper.
(2) Examine the color contrast between the light wax paper and the dark ink images of the graphics
(3) Look at the creases on the white border. If it is real wax paper the crease will actually break the wax and create a white line, but if it is printed on paper and made to look real the crease will just be a paper crease and not change the color of the item.
(4) There should be fold lines where the chocolate would have been inside of wrapper. Link


Does not necessarily determine if the wrapper is real or fake
-------------------------------------------------------
(1) Issues with the "H" in George H. Candy Co. Inc.
(2) The number "7" on the wrapper


The difficult thing about this is that it looks like it is really difficult to determine authenticity until you have the wrapper in hand. And I don't know if you buy a wrapper off ebay and it doesn't light up under black light if that will convince ebay that item is not as described.

In this REA auction (Link), REA states that they believed there are only around 15 genuine wrappers in the world, and that "Authentic examples such as this are actually very easy to distinguish from the fakes, but real ones are so rare that few collectors have ever even had the opportunity to compare." Unfortunately, they don't give that distinguishing characteristic.