[library user]

The strip removed from the document could have been done to authenticate the age of the document.

Oh, to take a sample?

[surfer]

I am just guessing but it looks “to surgical” to be a tear - looks like it was removed from the document.

[spycatcher]

Also, the fake old torn one’s edges are to uniformly jagged. Also the tear itself is fake. No real tear looks like that and it certainly would not have the same jagged edges as the sides of the document.