This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
One can just about trace Mickey Mantle's life through these 16 pins which date from the 1950s to 1982. The earliest pins are three identical images of a boyish looking Mantle from the early ‘50s in a batting stance. One of the pins is black and white, one had a blue background, and one is b&w with an attached red ribbon and a gold bat and ball on a chain. All are PM-10 1 3/4", the first is G and the last two VG. There is an early Mantle image is on a PM-10 13/4" G pin with an attached red, white and blue ribbon and a gold glove, bat and ball. There is a 1 3/4" VG pin that reads "I Love Mickey," a hit song in the mid-1950s by Teresa Brewer on which Mantle sang the words "Mickey who?" The pin features Mantle and Brewer holding bats. Two other early Mantle pins are 3 ½" VG with identical Mantle head shots, one with a light blue background, the other bright yellow. There is also a ‘50s era pin that is 3" VG featuring a color shot of the Mick gripping a bat. An older-looking Mantle is featured on these pins: one 1 ½" EX with no words in addition to those that read "Baseball Flip Tipps" (color, 3" EX), "Lee Jeans, The Brand That Fits" (blue tinted, 3" VG), "Mickey Mantle Collectors Club" (b&w, 3" VG) There are two identical 4" EX pins from Mickey Mantle Day when Mantle's uniform #7 was retired. These have a color image of Mantle set against a blue background and the words "A Day to Remember" and "Sunday, June 8, 1969, Yankee Stadium," with two "7"s and a stamped Mantle inscription reading, "My thanks to you all, Mickey Mantle." There is also a 3" VG color pin commemorating Mantle's 1973 Hall of Fame induction with the words, "Baseball Hall of Fame," and a 2 1/8" G white pin with a Mantle image reading, "I saw Mickey Mantle at Echelon Mall" in black letters and the date "Dec. 3, 1982" in red.