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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 Null on February 6, 2013 at 3:33pm
Mr. Wager is it possible for you to get a refund from where you purchased the above forgery? If so, you should try ASAP.

I encourage you to read through this thread, you will learn a ton. Also, if you do a simple search of "YMC SPORTS" on this site, you will gain some more insight to that worthless COA.

Stare at some 100% authentic Mick autos, and compare it side by side with yours.
Permalink Reply by D Wager on February 6, 2013 at 3:44pm

Think I'll do that.  Thanks... Just for the record, there was no ill intent in the eBay listing.  Am grateful for your input, but how about toning down the reaction to my listing?  ("Piece of crap forgery listed by eBay seller...")  Not everyone is a crook.

Permalink Reply by D Wager on February 6, 2013 at 6:01pm

Open question:  Has anyone on this site ever disagreed with a JSA or PSA "authenticated" signatures or had issues with the "positive" decisions made on autographs by the other companies I have learned are accepted by eBay as "reliable."  I'm curious, because the whole process - both forging and authenticating - seems pretty open to questioning... Thanks

Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on February 6, 2013 at 6:02pm

it happens with all TPA's, some are more prone to errors than others, but they all make them

Permalink Reply by D Wager on February 7, 2013 at 4:19pm

Thanks

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 6, 2013 at 6:15pm

Explain to us, D. Wager, what "seems pretty open to questioning?"

In your case, you purchased a set of autographs based on price alone and then you were hoping to flip it on EBay for a profit. 

I am one of the few collectors who takes a hard-line stance against buyers of forgeries.  There's a huge market for forgeries because the majority of so-called autograph collectors don't have about autographs, and the sellers of forgeries know it.

That piece-of-crap set of forgeries you purchased have been "produced" in quantity by a dirt-bag in Florida.

I don't apologize for taking a hard-line stance against the buyers of forgeries.  If the buyers of forgeries didn't purchase that garbage, the sellers of forgeries would be out of business.

How much did you pay for that set of forgeries you purchased?

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 5, 2013 at 6:58pm

Here's another horrific Mickey Mantle forgery from the 1990's (Operation Bullpen).

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller asportsgallery.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-8x10-Photo-Autographed-Signed...

Permalink Reply by Null on February 6, 2013 at 11:37am
Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on February 6, 2013 at 5:14pm

In my opinion, there is no doubt these are mechanically produced. Either an Autopen with varying templates or some sort of device that follows a base template and allows for slight variations between signatures.

Click to enlarge.

Permalink Reply by Tom Schwartz on February 6, 2013 at 5:20pm

Great eye Mr. Z, I think you're onto something.

Permalink Reply by Null on February 6, 2013 at 5:31pm

I stared at this one a long time before I posted it here. It's one of the "better" fakes, not AS obvious as the typical forgeries. The M's are halfway decent, the "ic" and "an" gave it away for me. Once I zoomed in, I immediately noticed the dots, "chugging" in the M's, and uniform thickness. That sealed it as a fake for me and I posted it. I assumed it was from someone signing incredibly slow and trying to be precise as possible, but you bring up a very good point Mr. Zipper. It very well could be mechanical. 

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 6, 2013 at 5:47pm

It's a horrible and obvious forgery.  It takes a long time to get that "eye" for autographs and I can appreciate Ryan working on training his eye for autographs. 

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