Autograph Authentication Report
2024 SMZ Comics Metal Trading Card - Artist Auto - Eddie Nuñez · #ø
Findings
Signature comparison
This card. The signature as cropped from the slab photo (front).
Below, the known examples Crown compared it with. Examples with stronger proof (signed in front of staff, or certified by an independent authenticator) carry the most weight.
Feature by feature
| Feature | This card | Known examples | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall form and proportions | Abbreviated 'Nuñ…' form: a dominant tall capital N followed by compressed, much shorter lowercase letters, with an arcing terminal stroke over the last letter. | R1, R2, R4 and R5 all show the same abbreviated form: a tall, narrow N at roughly 2–3x the height of the following letters, which are reduced to quick u/n humps. | Match |
| Slant and baseline | Near-upright to slight right slant; the lowercase letters sit on a fairly level baseline. | Near-upright to slight right slant with a level or slightly rising baseline (R1, R4, R5); R2 is more upright. | Match |
| Letter construction (N) | Long first upstroke, sharp apex, diagonal descent, then a second tall upstroke; narrow, angular construction. | Same narrow, angular N built from long up/down strokes with sharp apexes; R4 and R5 show slightly more looping in the first leg. | Natural variation |
| Lowercase letters and connections | u and n run as connected humps without lifts. The final letter reads as 'a/ñ' with a rounded body. | Connected u/n humps in all references; the final letter is often truncated (R2 shows 'Nunr', R1 and R5 'Nuí'). | Natural variation |
| Terminal stroke / tilde flourish | The terminal stroke arcs up and over the final letter like a tilde. It is shorter and more curved than the long rising dash in most references. | R1, R3, R4 and R5 show a long, detached, rising diagonal tilde/tick to the upper right. R2 shows little or no tilde. | Natural variation |
| Starting and ending strokes | Starts and ends appear tapered, with no blunt or blobbed terminals visible at this resolution. | Tapered entry and exit strokes, consistent with fast execution. | Match |
| Line quality and speed | Fluid, confident strokes with no visible tremor, patching or hesitation at this resolution. | Rapid, fluid paint-pen strokes. | Match |
| Pen pressure pattern | Opaque white paint-pen line with modest width variation through curves. | Paint pen in several colors (white in R1 and R2) with similar width variation. | Match |
| Spacing | Tight letter spacing after a slight gap following the N. | Similar tight spacing after the N. | Match |
| Placement and size | Large signature over the artwork in the upper (Raphael) panel, rotated relative to the slab because the card is landscape. | Large signatures placed directly over the artwork on the image side of the metal cards. | Match |
| Reproduction indicators | No halftone or dot pattern visible. The ink appears to sit on the surface, but this cannot be confirmed from a scan. | N/A | Not assessable |
Examiner notes
Our signature is on a 2024 SMZ Comics TMNT metal card. All references are contemporaneous SMZ metal-card artist autos from the same program and era. R4 and R5 carry Crown certs 000059929 and 000059930, close to ours (000059926), which suggests the same submission batch. Era-driven change is not a factor; the differences seen are within session-to-session variation.
How Crown authenticates autographs: the signature is compared with known examples gathered from Crown's own authenticated cards, independent authenticators and public listings, measured by software, examined by an AI forensic model, and signed off by Crown Grading staff. The decision above is Crown's.
