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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 December 21, 2012 at 4:47pm

Here's another "Shop At Home" Mickey Mantle forgery.

As most of us here know, the shopping channels (Shop At Home TV) sold approximately $750,000 in forgeries to consumers.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller "kmckennastennis."

Typical horrific Mickey Mantle forgery.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 22, 2012 at 2:26am

Here's another horrific and pathetic Mickey Mantle forgery.

This Mickey Mantle forgery on a baseball is listed by Ebay seller "bigdave8321."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-MICKEY-MANTLE-SIGNED-AUTOGRAPHED-OFFIC...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 22, 2012 at 2:34am

Here's yet another piece-of-crap Mickey Mantle forgery on a baseball.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller "westernreserveantiquities."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Autographed-OAL-Baseball-Sign...

Click on the images to get a closer view.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 22, 2012 at 2:45am

More Mickey Mantle forgeries listed by Evbay seller "bigdave8321."

Click on the imagesto get a closer view.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-MICKEY-MANTLE-WILLIE-MAYS-DUAL-SIGNED-...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-MICKEY-MANTLE-SIGNED-RAWLINGS-BASEBALL...

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Permalink Reply by John Michaels on December 22, 2012 at 1:20pm

Hi guys,

Any comments on authenticity of this 58 Yankees ball Mantle signature?

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 22, 2012 at 1:29pm

I'm curious to find out, too, John. I don't know old Mantle.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on December 22, 2012 at 2:17pm

I believe this is a clubhouse signature.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 23, 2012 at 6:52am

Here's another set of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Duke Snider forgeries with a COA from MFP Reborn.

This set of Mantle, Mays and Snider forgeries on a photo are listed by Ebay seller tylertank89.

This particular set of forgeries was produced in the thousands. Since this crap has been removed from Ebay, this crap can usually be sold to wannabe collectors and suckers at local charities, so-calles estate sales, local auctions, etc.

Please click on the images to get a closer view.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Duke-Snider-Willie-Mays-signe...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 23, 2012 at 7:15am

First, we have a set of Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams forgeries on a photograph. As most of us know by now, this particular set of forgeries was produced in the thousands. Most of this crap has COAs from Chris Morales, MFP Reborn, YMC Sports, Myst-O-Graph, GAI, and others. All bogus, of course.

And as we all know, Chris Morales is on Ebay's Banned COA list. YMC Sports and MFP Reborn should be on Ebay's Banned COA list.

This particular set of Mantle and Williams forgeries is listed by Ebay seller "thebluesagemerchant."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-SIGNED-Photo-Ted-WILLIAMS-Mickey-MANTL...

From the same Ebay seller "thebluesagemerchant" comes the below set of forgeries which has also been produced in the thousands.

These forgeries are of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Billy Martin.

It comes with a Scoreboard COA. This is not a Scoreboard product as we all know!!!!! We have seen hundereds of sellers over the years tainting the Scoreboard COA by reproducing it, or coupling it with forgeries in an attempt to legitimize the forgeries they are selling.

Also, the Scoreboard COAs never had a hologram on them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-SIGNED-Photo-Joe-DIMAGGIO-Billy-MARTIN...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 23, 2012 at 8:51am

These criminals have smeared the once good name of Scoreboard by copying their COA. And the side effect is people with legitimate items from Scoreboard now have their good item tainted. Terrible.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on December 23, 2012 at 4:28pm

Ditto, Mr. Zipper.

The moron who put those holograms on those Scoreboard certs, is just that; a moron.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on December 24, 2012 at 11:01pm

Hologram sticker is identical to those used by Chris Morales prior to his new hologram stickers. Here is one just like the ones put on Scoreboard COA. Guess we know who the moron is. I'm betting on Christopher Morales, Forensic Document Examiner.....what a laugh.

Using somebody elses photo so I'd like to credit them for it. Thank you EBAY seller: savinifan666 for posting a forgery for sale so it can be used in comparing holograms with another forgery.