Topps Transcendent Card Misidentified 450 Year Old Signature of This King
A social media post led to the finding that a 2021 Topps Transcendent 1/1 Cut Autograph of King Henry IV of England actually belonged to King Henry IV of France. The back of the card identifies the signature as belonging to "King Henry IV, King of England."
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The initial post, by @kaseymcdd on X, was about King Henry's signature possibly being the oldest ever put on a trading card. A few hours later, she posted an update that historical autograph collectors identified the signature as belonging to King Henry IV of France, not England.
Is this the oldest Topps cut signature card ever made? 👀
— kasey (@kaseymcdd) March 3, 2025
This 1/1 King Henry IV cut auto from 2021 Topps Transcendent features a signature from the former King of England, who ruled from 1399 to 1413.
That makes this signature over 600 years old!
Seller is asking… pic.twitter.com/AAxR86YHUB
While King Henry IV of France's signature is certainly old, with the monarch living from 1553-1610, the signature of King Henry IV of England is rarer and older, with the English monarch living from 1367-1413.
Online searches yielded signed documents by the French monarch sold at auction for a few hundred dollars. One 14.75" x 10" document signed on May 24, 1588, sold for $937.50 with buyer's premium on September 21, 2023 through Heritage Auctions.
A number of historian collectors reached out to me about this, and it looks like the signature is actually from Henry IV of France, not Henry IV of England.
— kasey (@kaseymcdd) March 4, 2025
Seems like Topps may have made a pretty big mistake here 😬
Shoutout to @bryan_collects for being the first to figure… https://t.co/ykeSnLYD89 pic.twitter.com/exOrMO2ve7
Heritage Auctions sold a 10.75" x 10.5" document signed by King Henry IV of England on May 20, 1470, for $1,250 with buyer's premium on May 11, 2017. It appears to be the English monarch's lone signature sold by Heritage in the past 18 years, while the auction house has sold six documents signed by the French monarch over the last 18 years.
With Topps made aware of the mistake, what course of action should it take? Should the company contact the seller and offer a buyout or offer to create a new card with the proper attribution?
