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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 GraphingMlb on March 14, 2013 at 9:05pm

why the hell is this guy allowed to be trotted out on TV

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on March 15, 2013 at 4:58am

Check out this typical Mickey Mantle forgery on EBay.

First, this Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller bigbob8346.

Second, EBay seller bigbob8346 writes in his title description "Mickey Mantle 8x10photo auto psa jsa ready chance to get real auto 4 cheap."

Seriously!!!??? "PSA/JSA ready for this ugly forgery?" And only $70.00!!!

Click on the images to get a closer view.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/mickey-mantle-8x10photo-auto-psa-jsa-ready-...

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Permalink Reply by Null on March 15, 2013 at 6:29am

Someone's going to have a nice Mantle photo/plaque signed by a fat@$$ named Greg Marino on their wall.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on March 16, 2013 at 7:52am

what a nimrod...The Seller & especially the "dopey buyer". An ugly pose anyway made even uglier by the horrible scribble. It never ceases to amaze me that the Jack Me Hoffs actually think they are getting a Mantle on the cheap (LOL) It hurts my sides when I think just how moronic people are. Evidently, they don't read our rants and have not heard of the old adage "you get what you pay for". Maybe their favorite mantra is "There is a sucker MORON born every minute".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFGVp-W-XGE

I don't know why it makes me laugh so much...this stupification of America.

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Permalink Reply by Null on March 15, 2013 at 11:22am

eBay seller joanna810 shows us the definition of someone who knows nothing about autographs buying a bunch at a local auction (estate most likely) and then looking to flip them on eBay for profit. $3,000 BIN. LMAO. Junk junk junk.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271172839615

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Permalink Reply by Null on March 15, 2013 at 11:24am

eBay seller venomrip with a piece-of-crap Monkey Mantle. $800 BIN. Lol.

COA from ASA.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Auto-Auto-autographed-1994-Wo...

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Permalink Reply by patrick barber on March 16, 2013 at 8:16am

This is my auction what is wrong with it

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 16, 2013 at 8:23am

It is a documented, mass-produced forgery style. Even in the fuzzy scan, the slowly drawn and shaky loops under the Ms are evident. Zero percent chance this is authentic.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on March 16, 2013 at 8:27am

Patrick, it's a typical piece-of-crap Mickey Mantle forgery that has been produced in the thousands.

It's people like you, who know ZERO about autographs, that buy this garbage at local auctions, charity events, etc., at a cheap price and then you hope to flip it on EBay for a nice profit. We will continue to expose sellers of this garbage.

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on March 16, 2013 at 8:30am

other than the fact that it's a well documented HORRIBLE PUTRID MONKEY MAUTLE Forgery and your asking 800.00 for it on top of that.... LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOOLOL. It's funnier than Sam Kinneson

An authentic example would run $375-600.00. WTF would you ask 800.00 even if it was real? That's what so damned funny about sellers like yourself and why they are posted here. asking 800.00 for a blatent forgery....so "that's whats wrong with it"

Not sure if you got burned or if your trying to make money by buying this trash and flipping it on e-bay?

You are obviously not a collector asking $800.00 for that piece of S***, but at least you are finally searching for answers which puts you a cut above the usual moron trying to pull the same stunt. Congratulations. Look at these authentic samples and then look at the mess that you are selling for 800.00. There's what wrong with it in a nutshell.

http://s1342.beta.photobucket.com/user/fuddjcal/library/Mickey%20Ma...

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Permalink Reply by patrick barber on March 16, 2013 at 8:48am

I pulled the auction Im not scamming I bought it on Ebay. Just trying to fip it for cash. As you see I have many auctions most are from major brands. I posted it for $800 looking for $300- 400 guess ill give it to my son to play baseball