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Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio: Authenticating Baseball Forger Favorites

It is unquestionable that Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio have been American sports icons since the mid-20th century. It comes as no surprise that these three have been favorites of autograph collectors since the advent of autograph and card shows in the 1980’s. Unfortunately it is equally unsurprising, as attested to in the FBI’s famous 1990s Operation Bullpen, that they are also the three most forged sports autographs. Although most experts believe the forgery problem in sports memorabilia has lessoned tremendously since Operation Bullpen (estimated at that time to be “between $500,000,000 and $900,000,000” by the FBI), sadly large numbers of forged material still exist.

While it would require far more than a single article to educate the autograph collector to detect Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio forgeries, there are some general as well as specific warning keys to these three autographs that may aid in detecting possible forgeries.

Genuine Mantle, Williams & DiMaggio signed photo provided by EAC Gallery.
Click to enlarge:

As a general rule, one of the first things I examine in an autograph is its feel – how it was written. When an individual signs his name there should be an easy, smooth flow to the signature. We’ve all signed our names countless times, and we don’t need to think about it. An item we offered in one of our past auctions was a sheet of paper signed several times by Joe Jackson. Jackson, who was almost completely illiterate, actually had to practice, in essence work at, writing his name prior to signing documents. Likewise, when a forger writes a signature, he or she is working at it and therefore upon close examination it’s often possible to detect such warning keys as a slowness of motion, stops and starts at inappropriate spots, and possibly even a shakiness in the writing. An invaluable aid to help detect these keys, taught to me by John Reznikoff of University Archives many years ago, is to turn the autograph upside down. When you view an autograph in an unnatural position these warning keys are often easier to detect.

In addition to such general warning keys there are specific warning keys, unique to an individual’s autograph, to keep an eye out for.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s Mickey Mantle stated on numerous occasions that he was blessed to be able to earn more money signing his name at one single weekend show than his father had earned in an entire year working as a coal miner. Because of this Mantle always felt his fans were deserving of a clear, elegant signature. In authentic Mickey Mantle autographs Mickey would always end the “y” in “Mickey” on an upswing, and because he would be quickly flowing through his signature, he therefore started the “M” in “Mantle” on a higher level or plane than he had started the “M” in “Mickey”. Most forgers, because they were “working” on writing Mantle’s signature, would pause after completing “Mickey” and begin anew in writing “Mantle”, therefore placing “Mantle” on more of a straight line with “Mickey”. If one places a ruler or sheet of paper straight across the item Mantle signed (not straight across the signature) all that appears below the ruler or paper of an authentic Mantle is the bottom portion of the “M” in “Mickey”. In the case of most forgeries the ruler or paper completely covers the entire signature. Another difficulty forgers have with Mantle’s signature was his unique way of looping the bottom portion of his “M”. Such curved lines were executed in one easy movement by Mantle, but are most often elongated by forgers who again are “working” the signature. Such slow, elongated forgeries are especially easy to recognize on baseballs as their curved surfaces only add to the forger’s difficulty.

In the case of Ted Williams autographs, with the exception of the capital “W” in Williams, Ted would consistently make the size of all the letters in his last time nearly the same exact size. Most telling is the “illia”, with the “l”s just ever so slightly taller than the “i”s, and the “a” as tall as the “l”s. Try as they may, most forgers simply can’t undo years of training and habit causing their “l”s to be significantly taller than their “i”s, and their “a” significantly shorter than their “l”s. Williams also connected the “W” in “Williams” to the “ed” in “Ted” with a swirl that gave forgers difficulty in replicating in the same, easy, flowing movement as appears in authentic examples. Also of interest, in addition to the many Williams intentional forgeries in existence, Williams revealed late in his life that during his playing days his signature on team signed balls was often a “clubhouse” example, not penned by him.

Regarding Joe DiMaggio’s autograph, problems for forgers begin with the first letter in Joe. Like the “M”s in Mantle’s autograph, the “J” in “Joe”, which appears as two loops, a larger loop on top and a smaller one below, were created by curved lines which are the hardest to duplicate without leaving telltale signs of slowness or inappropriate stops and starts. In addition, DiMaggio would pen his “J”s so that the lower loop would be written on top of (literally written over) the upper loop in two places. For some inexplicable reason, a significant percentage of DiMaggio forgeries flow in the opposite direction, with the upper loop covering the lower one. An inexpensive magnifier or jeweler’s loop will aid in viewing this detail. Finally, the general feel of an authentic DiMaggio autograph is often somewhat sloppy, in the sense that the spacing between letters is uneven, obviously much more so in his second name. Again due to the fact that forgers are working rather than simply signing, the spacing they place between each letter is far more uniform.

Finally, the age-old adage “experience is the best teacher” is indeed appropriate here. The building of as extensive a library of exemplars as possible, of both authentic and fake examples, would be of help to visualize these and additional warning keys, and tremendously assist in the detection of forgeries.

Tags: authenticate, baseball, dimaggio, fame, forgeries, forgers, genuine, hall, hof, joe, More…mantle, mickey, of, ted, williams

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on October 17, 2012 at 10:47am

Thanks guys.for the tips. I don't own it, but I found it from a dealer"s stock; I purchased another piece that others agree with me that it looks authentic on this site.

Almost every piece in his stock is questionable in my opinion that it makes me question the piece that I got opined.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on October 20, 2012 at 2:48pm

Here's another Mickey Mantle forgery with a COA from Autographed Legends, LLC. This is the same crap that we see with COA from YMC Sports, Myst-O-Graph and CSC Collectibles.

This Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller babyface3308.

How many thousands of so-called collectors believe the hype in that Autographed Legends COA which reads:

Autographed Legends, LLC Only Recognizes An Opinion Rendered By A Board Certified, Court Qualified, Forensic Document Examiner With A Substantial Verifiable Court Recognized Exemplar File.

What a freakin' joke!!!!!

Here is the Mantle forgery. We have exposed literally hundreds of forgeries here with COAs from Autographed Legends, YMC Sports, Myst-O-Graph and CSC Collectibles. Unfortunately, there are thousands upon thousands of forgeries out there with those aforementioned COAs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTLE-NEW-YORK-YANKEES-SIGNED-AUTOG...

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Permalink Reply by DB on October 20, 2012 at 3:07pm

wow, removed in less than 17 minutes - must be a record;

Item 251170966972 is no longer available

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Permalink Reply by Eric on October 21, 2012 at 8:28am

Hey guys I'm new to the site and was wondering if you guys could take a quick look if you think these are real or fake ?? Please thank you :)

Attachments: No photo uploads here

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Permalink Reply by Eric on October 21, 2012 at 8:31am

Here it is. Haha

Attachments: No photo uploads here

image.jpg, 599 KB

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Permalink Reply by Steve on October 21, 2012 at 7:08pm

Looks good.

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Permalink Reply by Eric on October 21, 2012 at 8:39am

There is a story behind the picture and autos as well the guy who's selling it says he recived it from one of his good friends named Barry Landers who worked for Yankees from office in te 70's-80's I belive not sure i have never heard of him just wanted to include that thanks :)

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on October 21, 2012 at 9:32am

Nice piece. Authentic.

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Permalink Reply by Eric on October 21, 2012 at 8:08pm

Thanks guys whats a good price to buy/sale an item like this?

Thanks again guys for everything!! Eric

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on October 22, 2012 at 5:33pm

Check out these Mickey Mantle and "500 Homerun Club" forgeries listed/sold by Ebay seller estatecinti.

How many hundreds of times have we exposed these typical Mantle and 500 Homerun Club forgeries. These were produced in the thousands.

First, the Mickey Mantle forgery by Ebay seller estatecinti. Seller claims it comes with a Scoreboard COA.

This is not a Scoreboard product. This is another seller misrepresenting the old Scoreboard COA.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTLE-AUTOGRAPHED-BASEBALL-SIGNED-H...

Here is the 500 Homerun Club set of forgeries. It sold for $350.00. Look at this piece of garbage.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/500-HOME-RUN-CLUB-SIGNED-BY-11-BASEBALL-BAL...

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Permalink Reply by Peter leone on October 22, 2012 at 6:02pm

Hello Chris,

I think you do a good job picking out the Mantle, DiMaggio and Williams signatures both good and bad. I am just curious if anyone has contacted the sellers of these items? I think a majority of the sellers are unsuspecting that these are actually bad and if made aware of the fact they may pull them down or if they sold they may make it right and contact the buyer and make it right with them.

The reason I bring this up is because these were sold by the thousands on QVC, Shop at home etc and the sellers may have bought them way back when with the impression that they were in fact real because they came from those shows and have now decided to re sell them and just do not know that they are bad.

Curious of your thoughts.

P.S Love the shipping price on the 500 HR ball. For $19.99 they can hand deliver that ball. LOL