Throughout history several famous and non-famous individuals have sign their "John Hancock" to several types of documents and books in a variety of ways. However, I actually wonder how an individual would sign their name if they have no idea of how to read or write or had no use of the alphabet in any shape or form.
Throughout history everyone has learned about the great Indian Chief named Geronimo, but few seem to realize that he had no concept of the alphabet or any type of alphabet for that matter. Instead of him signing his name like a you or I would sign our name, he would draw a picture to represent his signature, simply because that is all that he knew. Would it be considered legal and binding today? Well, since each time he drew his signature it was completed in the same familiar drawing, then yes, it would be considered legal and binding. However, during the time of Geronimo he was given no legal rights, in fact, all of his legal rights and the legal rights of his people were actually taken from them.
Today there are a variety of individuals who have many fancy signatures, which are above the normal cursive and regular print, that might include more elaborate ascenders, descenders, and some types of exotic flourishes that are have been found in the familiar calligraphic type writing. Some of the more popular autographs collected throughout the world by individuals are from popular sports figures, famous artists, authors, military figures, astronauts, and even Presidents. There are some collectors that may specialize their collection of autographs upon specific fields, which might include Nobel Peace Prize winners or simply military war veterans that participated within a particular war such as World War I.
These individuals will create their very own specialized autographed books to collect their autographs in and they may also collect several types of autographs instead of focusing only simply one. Luckily for many individuals there are several athletes that still enjoy signing autographs for their fans without feeling the need to have to charge them for it. However, there are those athletes that have gotten so popular and become so built up within themselves that they will charge their fans for simply signing their autograph, which I feel is ridiculous. I happen to be the biggest New York Yankee fan there is, and the majority of the New York Yankees, whether the players are currently playing or are retired, will charge for signatures. The famous Joe Dimaggio, Barry Bonds, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriquez to name a few on this pay for my name list.
For the safety of fans, Michael Jordan would not sign autographs for the majority of his career, which made his signature worth a couple of hundreds of dollars. However, if he was caught at a peaceful event, such as at a golf tournament, then he would sign a few autographs as long as he felt no one would get hurt during the process. He was not concerned about individuals making a profit off of his signature, in fact, he was more concerned about the individuals who would get hurt when attempting to get close to him learning that he was signing autographs.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Victor Epand
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