Professional examination
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expert opinion
A professional read is worth paying for when the value or importance of the item justifies it, when you intend to sell, insure, or gift it, or when the twelve warning signs leave you genuinely undecided. Secretarial signatures, autopens, and the work of a known forger are the three failures you cannot settle at a kitchen table.
Meet our expert
Samuel Kevin Martin
Piece of the Past states that its authentication is headed by CEO Kevin Martin, a twice court-certified expert in entertainment memorabilia with more than forty years in the field, the author of twelve books and hundreds of articles on authentication and collecting.
The company also describes him as the writer of the “Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries” column for the former Autograph Collector magazine and a co-author of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club’s ethics rules. Credentials like these matter for one practical reason: an opinion is only as good as the person who has to defend it.
Credentials as published by Piece of the Past. Samuel Kevin Martin is authentication lead, piece of the past; confirm current services and terms with the company directly.
- Twicecourt-certified
- Accepted as an expert in entertainment memorabilia in court proceedings — accountability that goes beyond a printed certificate.
- 40+years examining
- Four decades of signatures, forgeries, autopens, and secretarial hands passing across one desk.
- 12books written
- Published titles on authentication and collecting, alongside an ongoing role in the trade.
- 100sof articles
- Written on forgery, certificates, and how the memorabilia market actually works.
Before the loupe comes out
What a professional sees in five seconds
Authenticators do not start with the letters. They start with the things that can end the question outright — and most rejections happen here, before anything gets measured.
The 12 warning signs in full →- i
The pen against the date
A felt tip on a pre-1960 photograph, or a ballpoint on anything claimed before 1945, ends the conversation immediately. No stroke analysis required.
- ii
Speed, terminals, and tremor
Flying start, flying finish, tapering tails. A signature that begins and ends in blunt dots was placed rather than written, and a selective wobble means a slow hand.
- iii
Retouching
Any doubled line inside a single stroke means the pen went back over its own path. Genuine signers do not correct their own signature.
- iv
The wrong famous version
Forgers copy whichever example of a signature is most published. Specialists recognise that source example on sight, the way you recognise a familiar photograph.
- v
The known hand
Prolific forgers have a style of their own that survives every name they fake. Experienced eyes identify the forger, not just the flaw — and a recognised hand is the fastest rejection there is.
What actually happens between arrival and verdict
- 01
seconds
Triage on the impossible
Instrument against date, stock against date, ink against surface. A felt tip on a pre-1960 print, a ballpoint before 1945, gel ink on a 1970s still — these end the examination before any comparison begins, and a large share of submissions never get past this stage.
- 02
seconds
Recognition, not analysis
Someone who has handled a few thousand examples of one signature is not comparing features — they are recognising a face. The same faculty that lets you spot a friend’s handwriting on an envelope works on signatures, and it works at a glance. What follows is the work of explaining the glance.
- 03
minutes
Exemplar comparison, dated
The item goes against three to five known signatures from within a few years of its claimed date — same pen type where possible, same signing context. This is what catches secretarials, which pass every physics-based check because a real hand really wrote them.
- 04
minutes
Pattern and hand identification
Autopen output is matched against known machine patterns, because an exact dimensional match to anything is itself the finding. Forgeries get matched against known forgers: prolific hands have a personal style that survives every name they imitate, and a recognised hand is the fastest rejection in the business.
- 05
hours to days
Provenance and the written opinion
Chain of custody, signing records, in-person proof photography where it exists. Then the opinion gets written down against the specific item, with the item illustrated, serialised, and traceable back to the person who formed it.
The house this guide points to
Piece of the Past
An entertainment-memorabilia dealer and authentication house with corporate offices in Las Vegas, more than three decades in the trade, and an unusual operating model: it states that its staff witness modern signings in person rather than buying finished product from other dealers.
That matters for the work described above. When the company has hosted the signing itself — and it says it has hosted thousands of private ones, with names including Sophia Loren, Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Dick Van Dyke, and Burt Reynolds — the exemplar being compared against is not a published photograph. It is a signature someone on staff watched being made, and it publishes proof photography of those sessions.
What an opinion comes back as
- Over $300
- Fully illustrated letter of authenticity, plus matching tamper-proof holograms on both the letter and the item.
- Above $100
- Fully illustrated letter of authenticity, without holograms.
- Under $100
- Red-bordered certificate card, hand-signed by the company’s CEO.
The company also states that it offers refunds to an original purchaser, with no time limit, if a UACC registered dealer states in writing on hand-signed letterhead that a piece is not authentic — and that it does not accept opinions from third-party grading services for that purpose. Its guidance on submitting to those services, and its full terms, are set out on its own authenticity page.
Read the policy in full →Note: the credentials, signing history, certificate tiers, and refund terms above are as published by Piece of the Past. They are reproduced here so you know what is on offer — confirm current terms, turnaround, and fees with the company directly before you submit or buy, as you should with any authentication house.
Questions worth asking any authenticator
Including the one this site sends you to. An authentication opinion is a professional service, and it should answer plainly for itself.
- 01
Who personally forms the opinion, and what is their experience with this specific signer?
- 02
What exemplars is my item being compared against, and from what years?
- 03
Does the opinion come illustrated with my actual item, and does it carry a serial I can verify later?
- 04
What happens if a qualified dealer disagrees in writing — what is the remedy, and is it time-limited?
- 05
Which markets and auction houses accept this opinion, and which do not?
- 06
What is the fee and the turnaround, in writing, before I ship anything?