Certificate warning
A Certificate of Authenticity is a record of somebody’s opinion. It is not proof, it is not a guarantee, and on its own it tells you nothing about the signature it came stapled to. Fakes are sold with certificates every day — it is one of the oldest moves in the trade, because the paperwork is easier to fake than the writing.
A certificate is a piece of paper with an opinion on it. There is no licence to issue one, no register to join, and no penalty for being wrong. A forger who can imitate a signature can certainly run off a letterhead, and the certificate costs pennies against the mark-up it unlocks.
If no individual is named as forming the opinion, no one has staked anything on it. “Authenticated by our team of experts” is not a name, cannot be questioned, and cannot be held to an outcome later.
A generic card that could accompany any signature by anyone is decoration. A certificate that does not illustrate the exact item it describes cannot connect the opinion to the object in your hands — and cards get swapped between items routinely.
No traceable address, no working telephone, a website that appeared last year, no history of standing behind opinions. An issuer you cannot reach is an issuer who will never have to answer for the certificate.
Successful certificates get faked. Holograms are copied, serials are invented, and letterheads from houses with real reputations are pasted onto fake items — which is precisely why a serial has to be checked with the issuer rather than admired on the page.
A certificate written by the person selling you the item is a sales document. It may well be honest, but it carries no independent weight, and it is worth exactly as much as the seller’s own reputation — no more.
The other side
None of this makes a certificate proof. It makes the opinion traceable to a person who can be asked about it — which is the most a piece of paper can honestly offer.
Verify, don’t admire
Find the issuer yourself — search for the company rather than using the contact details printed on the certificate. A counterfeit certificate carries a counterfeit phone number.
Ask the issuer to confirm the serial or hologram against their records, and to confirm it was issued for the item you are looking at.
Ask for the image the opinion was formed on. If the certificate cannot be tied to your specific item, it is describing something else.
Check who signed it, and what that person’s record is with this particular signer.
Ask where the opinion is accepted. An opinion no auction house recognises will not travel with the item when you sell.