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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 CJCollector on November 14, 2012 at 3:46am

Check out this horrific Mickey Charles Mantle forgery.

Another piece of crap forgery with a COA from Drew Max (AAU) who calls himself a FDE (Forensic Document Examiner).

This ugly Mickey Charles Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller sdmiinc. According to Ebay seller sdmiinc, Drew Max used "State Of The Art Authentication" to examine the below autograph. What a freakin' joke!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Charles-Mantle-autographed-OAL-Baseb...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on November 14, 2012 at 5:58am

Apparently Mr. Max doesn't have any Greg Marino forgeries in his exemplar files otherwise he would have seen this was a match.

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Permalink Reply by Bo on November 14, 2012 at 11:00am

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Permalink Reply by Bo on November 14, 2012 at 11:04am

"Hello all. I absolutly love this site and wanted to add these two auto's with you guys and get a little feedback. The first is a 1952 yankees team photo signed by Mick and the other is a 1981 Perez-Steele also signed by mick. …"

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 14, 2012 at 4:14pm

Here are three (3) more Mickey Mantle forgeries. These are listed by Ebay seller gemsymons who writes that they acquired them from an estate sale.

There are tons of estate sales that include these Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio forgeries that have been, and still are, produced from the state of Florida. Thousands of the below Mickey Mantle forgeries were produced and can now be found being sold at local auctions, charity events and estates sales.

It's amazing that the sellers who list this garbage think they have found amazing finds and then try to flip this crap on Ebay. These sellers obviously know ZERO about autographs and that goes for the buyers who bid and purchase this garbage.

As we have written hundreds of times before, this crap will infect the hobby forever.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Signed-Mickey-Mantle-New-York-Yankees-...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Signed-Ted-Williams-Mickey-Mantle-Phot...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Signed-Mickey-Mantle-New-York-Yankees-...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 17, 2012 at 4:25am

Here's a Ted Williams forgery listed by Ebay seller gemsymons.

Notice the "CSC Collectibles" hologram on the photo. As we all know, the CSC Collectibles COA is on Ebay's Banned COA list. This same seller also lists Muhammad Ali signed photos with that same CSC Collectibles hologram.

This is all the same crap that was, and still is produced out of Florida. What's curious is that Ebay usually removes this stuff immediately. Could it be that this seller has favored seller status with Ebay?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Signed-Ted-Williams-Boston-Red-Sox-Pho...

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 17, 2012 at 4:59am

Hopefully, they are not falling back to the old ways with powersellers! Of course it clearly says;

This Item Came From A Sports Dealers Estate. It Does Not Come With A COA!

So I guess we all have to ignore the usage of a Banned CSC Sticker on the item. lol! Wonder who the sports dealer was.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 18, 2012 at 9:41am

Here's another one of those Mickey Mantle/Ted Williams set of forgeries with the usual COA from YMC Sports.

This set of forgeries is listed by Ebay seller dmabe2007.

This particular set of forgeries was produced in the thousands. These forgeries usually have COAs from YMC Sports, Chris Morales, Ted Taylor (TTA/Stat Authentic), Drew Max (AAU), etc.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTLE-and-TED-WILLIAMS-Signed-8x10-...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 18, 2012 at 9:50am

I wanted to also mention that the forgeries being sold by Ebay seller gemsymons originally were paired with COAs from either CSC Collectibles or YMC Sports.

Of course, those COAs were conveniently misplaced.

But the holograms on those forgeries listed by Ebay seller gemsymons indicate that the original COAs are from CSC Collectibles or YMC Sports.

This one below is a YMC Sports hologram. This is the Mantle forgery listed by seller gemsymons.

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 18, 2012 at 3:00pm

& w/i the next few hours they will be sold based on the complete negligence of EBAY, CIT and the idiots that now run this program! Absolutely, amazing doesn't describe it.

jdonahoe@ebay.com is the email address for the HEAD of EBAY. I have already sent a direct email expressing my complete disatisfaction with EBAY's ability to effectively remove these forgeries.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on November 18, 2012 at 3:11pm

I am convinced that it has to do with the importance of the seller to Ebay. The ones with the higher feedback ratings seem to get preferential treatment.

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 18, 2012 at 4:39pm

I'm underwhelmed they finally took out; Item 190754251261 is no longer available & a few others & several more of the YMC, CSA Variety. But others remain and most likely will sell.

There use to be a process where powersellers were "consulted" in similar manner to PSA/DNA or JSA et all before they were removed. That practice changed significantly for awhile but now whatever there changes being made seem to be going backwards