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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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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 18, 2012 at 4:05pm

The seller's (Ebay seller byersjr) starting is so high even the wannabe autograph collectors won't bid on that crap.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 19, 2012 at 4:06pm

Here's a similar set of horrific Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio forgeries. Both sets of forgeries were penned by the same forger (the same dopey forger).

This set of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio forgeries is listed by Ebay seller goldexca.

These forgeries of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, and listed by Ebay seller goldexca, are a ugly a set of forgeries as we will ever see.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-and-Joe-Dimaggio-Autographed-...

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Permalink Reply by Steve on December 18, 2012 at 4:07pm

Please see item: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Autographed-Mickey-Mantle-Action-Photo-with...

Seller claims it is certified by PSA.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 18, 2012 at 4:15pm

PSS... PSA... just an innocent typo I'm sure. ;-)

The thing that always rings true with me is these forgers keep using photos that the Mick likely rarely or never signed in his lifetime. Look at authentic show Mantles... the vast majority of the time they are the standard bat over the shoulder spring training poses with palm trees in the background. Those are the poses the show promoters had available at the time.

Yet the forgers keep using these action poses that were rarely if ever signed authentically.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 18, 2012 at 4:32pm

Yeah, a "typo."

That particular Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller "discountpawnbrokers."

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on December 18, 2012 at 5:00pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321043437706

Guess EBAY seller eds277 still hasn't heard the word on Nicholas Burczyk!!!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 18, 2012 at 5:02pm

Another one of these jobs where the elaborate matting is worth infinitely more than the fake autographs it surrounds. Like putting lipstick on a pig.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 18, 2012 at 5:10pm

Yes, Rick. This particular set of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford and Billy Martin forgeries is listed by Ebay seller eds277.

The COA is from Nicholas Burczyk, who is on Ebay's "Banned COA" list. The Nicholas Burczyk COA is related to the following COAs: YMC Sports, MFP Reborn, Myst-O-Graph and others.

Ebay seller eds277 is responsible for the bellow listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=321043437706

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 18, 2012 at 6:12pm

Here's another Mickey Mantle forgery on a baseball.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller crautosales0.

The seller (crautosales0) claims they bought this Mantle back in 1997; which means they have owned this Mickey Mantle forgery for 15 years.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Autographed-Baseball-with-COA...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 18, 2012 at 7:27pm

Here's another Mickey Mantle forgery on Ebay.

This Mickey Mantle forgery on Ebay is listed by Ebay seller starad18.

This is the time of the year when the sellers of forgeries work big-time to dump their forgeries.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Signed-Baseball-/251202278664...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 18, 2012 at 7:46pm

Fake Mantle on a fake plastic ball.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Diaz on December 19, 2012 at 6:25am

Good Day all its Starad18

You have my ebau auction noted on this chat

Someone left me an ebay message stating I was on this chat.

I just wanted to state that I am in no way intentionally selling a forgery.

My Father in law purchased this ball many years ago and it was authenticated by a very repitable source when he bought it. Since that time this source has been discredited. My father in law since it was before the time the authenticator was discredited felt it was a legit autograph.

If it is not we are sorry it was never our intention to sell forgeries.