Autograph Authentication Report
2025 SMZ Comics Metal Trading Card - Artist Auto - Eddie Nuñez · #10
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 'Nui' form: a dominant tall N about twice the height of the following letters, a compact 'u', and a short 'i' finished by a long rising diagonal stroke. | R5, R6, R7, R8 and R3 show the same abbreviated tall-N + 'ui' + long diagonal form. R1 is close. R2 and R4 show a fuller 'Nuna/Nuñ' rendering with the same tall N. | Match |
| Slant and baseline | Near-upright N stems with a slight right lean. The baseline rises gently left to right, and the closing diagonal climbs steeply to the upper right. | Same near-upright stems and steep upper-right finishing diagonal in R1, R3, R5–R8. R4's baseline is flatter because of the extended 'na' ending. | Match |
| Letter construction – N | Begins with a small rightward hook at the top of the first stem. A long downstroke follows, then a narrow multi-peak zigzag (retraced diagonals) forming the body of the N. | Top hook plus narrow retraced zigzag N is clearly present in R5, R6, R8 and R1. R7 and R3 are similar with a slightly more open zigzag. R2 and R4 have the same initial hook and tall stem. | Match |
| Letter construction – 'u'/'i' and tilde stroke | Small rounded 'u' running into a short 'i' stroke, with a separate long diagonal slash rising to the right that serves as the tilde/i-dot. | R7 and R8 are near-identical, R5 and R6 very close. R1 and R3 show the same diagonal slash. R2 places a small tilde over the final letter instead, a known alternate. | Match |
| Connecting strokes | N connects continuously into the 'u'. The diagonal finishing stroke appears to be a separate lift, which is natural. | Same continuous N→u connection and separate finishing diagonal in R5–R8, R1 and R3. | Match |
| Starting and ending strokes | Hooked entry at the top of the N. The final diagonal tapers to a fine point at the upper right, indicating the pen was moving as it lifted. | Hooked entry and tapered upward exit are consistent across R1, R3, R5–R8. | Match |
| Line quality and speed | Strokes look fluid and confident, with tapered terminals and no visible tremor, patching or hesitation at this resolution. | Comparable fluid, fast paint-marker execution in all references. | Match |
| Pen pressure pattern | Fairly even paint-marker line with some thinning on the fast diagonal and the zigzag apexes. Pressure is hard to judge with a paint marker on metal. | Similar even marker line with thinning on fast strokes in R5–R8. Pressure is not meaningfully assessable from photos for any of them. | Not assessable |
| Spacing | Tight spacing between N and 'ui'. The diagonal overlaps the 'i' region. | Same tight spacing in R5–R8 and R1. | Match |
| Flourishes and underlines | No underline. The only flourish is the long rising diagonal. | No underlines in any reference. The diagonal flourish is common to most. | Match |
| Placement and size | Lower-left/center of the card face in light-blue paint marker over the printed art, moderately large. Separate from the printed '10/10' serial. | R5–R8 (same SMZ artist-auto line) show similar placement over the art in single-colour paint marker. R8 is the same light-blue colour. | Match |
| Reproduction indicators (halftone, under-gloss, facsimile) | No dot/halftone pattern visible in the crop. The ink colour differs from the monochrome printed art and appears to sit on the surface, but the image resolution cannot confirm this. | N/A | Not assessable |
Examiner notes
Ours is on a 2025 SMZ Comics metal card (No. 10, numbered 10/10), which places it in the same current-era signing window as all references. R1–R8 are also SMZ metal cards from the same period. No career-era drift needs explaining. The differences that do appear (abbreviated 'Nui/Nui' form vs. fuller 'Nuna/Nuñ' forms in R2/R4) look like signing-to-signing variation in a fast paint-marker autograph, not era change.
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.
