1961 Topps #531 Jim Coates
About Jim Coates
Card #531 lands in the 1961 set's seventh series, a high number. It reports Coates' 1960 Yankees season: a career-high 13 wins against three losses with a 4.28 ERA, 73 strikeouts and one save across 35 games, 18 of them starts, with six complete games and two shutouts. That October he worked in relief in Game 1 of the World Series and served up Bill Mazeroski's home run, the deciding blow in Pittsburgh's 6-4 win.
James Alton "Jim" Coates was born August 4, 1932, in Farnham, Virginia, and signed with the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1951. He spent seven years in the Yankees farm system, debuted September 21, 1956, and won a bullpen job in New York in 1959. The 6-foot-4 right-hander worked as a reliever and spot starter through 1962, then had stints with the Washington Senators, Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles/California Angels, leaving the majors after 1967 with a 43-22 record, a 4.00 ERA and 396 strikeouts over 247 games. He was a 1960 All-Star, pitching two scoreless innings in the first of that summer's two All-Star Games, and he won back-to-back World Series titles with New York in 1961 and 1962. His most-remembered outing came in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series at Forbes Field: he relieved with the Yankees ahead 7-5 in the eighth, went at a Roberto Clemente chopper instead of covering first so that Bill Virdon scored, then gave up Hal Smith's home run that put Pittsburgh in front 9-7, before Bill Mazeroski ended it in the ninth. His funereal look on the mound earned him the nickname "The Mummy." Coates was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and died November 15, 2019, at age 87.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 520 | 2 | 14 | 145 | 166 | 113 | 46 | 34 | 0 |
| SGC | 54 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 26 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #531 card?
It is card #531 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Coates of the New York Yankees.
Why is #531 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-589) from the seventh and last print series - the scarce end of the set, including the 22 Sporting News All-Stars.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-05.