broke this story. A number of FPG autograph cards had been forged. Ebay seller ‘dario65′ from Italy
has sold many forged FPG autographs, including one that I purchased. It is not known whether or not
the seller knew these were forged signature cards, he offered a refund when I inquired about it.
the cards in question were indeed forgeries. Whoever forged these cards did extensive work to
get them to look real, and even produced false gold ‘FPG Autograph’ stamps.
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authentic. Each card has a reasonable signature, is numbered to 1000, and has the gold FPG seal. The
card on the left is the authentic one, if you weren’t familiar with Jusko’s signature how could you tell?
Hopefully by the end of this article you will be an FPG autograph authentication wizard.
FPG autograph stickers), is the signature itself. FPG sends full uncut sheets of cards to the artists for
signing before the UV coating is applied to the card. Every authentic FPG autograph card is signed under
the UV coating. Examine the card under the reflection of the light. An authentic FPG autograph will reflect
the light basically the same over the entire card. An autograph on top of the UV coating will not reflect
light like the rest of the card since it’s ‘finish’ is different. Note: There were a few uncut sheets
of Don Maitz autographs that were sold on ebay as ‘error’ sheets. Maitz didn’t like something about the
sheets so he kept them. At least one seller on ebay has purchased a sheet and has been selling them as
‘artist signed cards.’ While his description isn’t wrong, it is deceptive as these are not authenticated
by FPG, and they do not have the gold FPG seal that they should have. These autographs did not go through
the final stages of production. They do not have UV coating, and are often not cut to the right size as
they were hand cut from the sheet.
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you really do not need the rest of this information, but this will give you some tips on what to look for
at a glance on the FPG gold stamp. Keep in mind that I am comparing 2 cards from Jusko ERB I, other
gold seals from other sets are slightly different, so the forged seals might be a bit different on them as
well.
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forged seals look cleaner in person (see the top image). There are a few differences in the scans. First
of all notice right after the handle on the forged seal there is slightly flared out section of the sword
(Between the F in FPG and the handle of the sword there is a bump which is more prominent on the bottom).
This does not appear on the authentic seal at all.
forged seal has spots above the T and between the PH, and the upper portion of certain letters like the D
and the R in Card is very thin. Finally, the words ‘Autograph Card’ appear to be on a scroll. The Forger
did a weak job with the scroll, and the ends look like circles, instead of rolled over paper. Compare the
lower left end of the authentic seal, with the upper right of the forged one — those sides of the scan came
out the best.
collect@webjon.com. I am interested in knowing which artist’s have
been forged, and how many forged cards are known to exist. I am also interested in any scans of forged
autographs.