If the beloved Princess of Wales signed as many photos and pictures as are offered on collector sites around the world, she'd still be alive with Sharpie in hand. After the 10th anniversary of her death in 2007, more amazingly surfaced.

I'm no authority on handwriting but spent many years writing about Diana and spent lots of money collecting Diana memorabilia, including autographs. You need not be an authority either to see the variation between the fake signatures and the consistencies between the real ones, even when they too vary.  Diana's very distinct "garland" style, uniformly rounded at the bottom, is one of the hallmarks of her real signature, as is the almost invisible "i" in her name, usually tucked into the tail of the capital "D." She looped her letters very distinctively, often accompanying the signature with an underline, period, asterisk or combination thereof but those too are often faked.


There are real Diana signatures and autographs available. The best ones comes from personal communication in England, where she sent so many letters, cards, and notes to people she met and had business with. Also, the English ones often carry a bit of provenance with them, tales of how the signatures were received or obtained. There is a much higher preponderance of unauthenticated signatures on photographs, some blatant forgeries and others bad auto-pen signings.Alternately, a good pre-print or reproduction of a signed photo costs much, much less than a pricy fake.

A note about COAs. Certificates of Authenticity are usually worth less than the paper they are printed on. That is not to diminish the numerous reputable dealers to carry authentic signatures and autographs, just a warning that they are more easily faked than the autographs. There is a very good Ebay Guide on COAs - check it out!