After the summer of 1939, the pen was usually in someone else's hand

That is not an accusation. It is PSA's own account of his signature, and it changes how any Gehrig item from 1939 onwards should be read.

What the disease did

Gehrig took himself out of the Yankees lineup on 2 May 1939, ending his consecutive-games streak, after his play had fallen away for reasons nobody could yet name. The diagnosis that followed was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that now carries his name in America. He made his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on 4 July and never played again. He died on 2 June 1941, aged thirty-seven.

ALS attacks voluntary muscle control, and the small precise movements go first. Holding a pen. Forming letters at speed. Signing a name the same way a hundred times in an afternoon.

So the autograph, which depends on exactly those movements, was one of the first things he lost.

What PSA says happened next

PSA's reference on his signature is direct about it. After July 1939 Gehrig signed infrequently because of his deteriorating condition, and as the disease advanced most items were signed by his wife, Eleanor, or applied by a secretary.

Genuine Gehrig signatures from that period do exist. PSA describes them as few and far between.

Another authentication source goes further back, and advises particular care with anything attributed to him from mid-1938 onwards, when the first symptoms were already affecting his play, and says that by early 1939 even legal documents sometimes needed help. PSA draws its line later. Both agree on the direction; they differ on when it begins, and a cautious buyer should treat the whole span from the middle of 1938 as the period that needs a second look.

Eleanor was not forging anything

Worth saying clearly, because the word "secretarial" tends to be heard as "fake".

A famous man who could no longer hold a pen kept receiving letters from children and fans asking for his name. His wife answered them. That is a family doing its best, not a fraud, and it is the same thing this index has described elsewhere: a Pirates employee practising Roberto Clemente's signature to answer his mail, and the several hands that signed Joe DiMaggio's name.

The collecting problem is simply that an item signed that way is not a Gehrig autograph, whatever it was meant as at the time, and it sells as one only until somebody looks closely.

The photograph at the World's Fair

There is a well-known picture of Gehrig at the New York World's Fair in 1939, the year he retired, signing a baseball for fans.

In the lower right of the frame is another hand, holding a pen, beside a stack of the small laurel-bordered cards that were being handed out. One dealer who has written about it notes that many hobby experts believe that hand is Eleanor's: Lou signing the balls, and his wife working through the cards.

Nobody can prove whose hand it is from a photograph. But it is a fair picture of how the requests were being met that year.

One tell, and why it is only one

The same dealer points to a specific difference between the two hands: in Eleanor's version the o in "Lou" tends to be an almost perfect circle, which Gehrig's own is not.

That is useful to know and dangerous to rely on. It is one observation from one source, a single letter is a small sample, and any tell that becomes well known is the first thing a forger adjusts. Treat it as a reason to ask for an expert opinion, never as a substitute for one.

Where he signed on a ball, while he could

One more detail from PSA's reference, because it explains something about his market.

Out of respect for Babe Ruth, Gehrig very rarely signed the sweet spot of a baseball. That place, as he saw it, belonged to the bigger star. His signature began appearing there more often only after Ruth retired, and single-signed Gehrig balls are much harder to find than Ruth's.

So even in his healthy years, much of what he signed carries his name in second position.

What our own records show

Every single-signed result this index records for him is a card from his playing career: 1925 Exhibits, 1933 Goudey and 1934 Goudey. None is dated to 1939 or later.

That is consistent with everything above. The material that reaches the top of his market comes from the years when the signature was unambiguously his own.

What to check before buying

Four things.

Date it. An item with a documented date before the middle of 1938 is in the safest part of his market. Anything from 1939 onwards is in the part where most signatures were not his.

Be most careful with fan-mail formats. Signed photographs, album pages and small cards returned by post are exactly what Eleanor and a secretary were answering. That is where the risk concentrates.

Look for a paper trail on late items. Genuine late signatures exist, and PSA's own exemplars include a 1939 cheque written to a hotel near the Mayo Clinic, where he was diagnosed, and a 1940 signed document. Paper that passed through a bank or an office is far easier to stand behind, which is the argument we made in why a cancelled cheque is the most reliable autograph you can buy.

And buy it certified by someone who has seen a lot of both hands. Telling Lou's signature from Eleanor's is precisely the comparison an experienced authenticator is paid to make.

The thing worth sitting with

The disease that ended the most durable career in baseball went for the small movements first, which meant it took his signature almost before it took anything else.

For two years his wife wrote his name for the people who asked. The market now separates her hand from his very carefully, and pays for the difference.

Which means the Gehrig autographs worth the most are the ones signed when nobody thought twice about asking him.

This index records documented sales of his signed material. You can read how we work the numbers out.

Sources