1951 Bowman Baseball #253 Mickey Mantle. This is Mantle's true rookie card and, as such, one of the most significant postwar cards in the hobby. The offered card is unusual because many decades ago our consignor altered it to mask its most glaring defect: a triangular area of surface paper loss to the left of Mantle's image, the tip of which affected Mantle's face. To remedy the situation, our consignor, made a color copy of another 1953 Bowman Mantle card. He then replaced the lost paper on his card by carefully cutting out the same section on the color copy and gluing it on the card. The replacement is noticeable upon close inspection, but allows the card to retain the integrity of its original aesthetics. Unfortunately, when we submitted it to SGC, the company refused to encapsulate it because of the aforementioned restoration. Aside from the alteration, the card, which was obtained by our consignor in 1951 when he was a child, also displays several moderate creases throughout.