Folder 111
US
USA, Capitol. Textured sleeve, and the bar-and-triangle Winchester plant mark cut into both run-outs.
What the record says
Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photograph named beside it.
Run-out photographed, both sides, across a dozen frames. Side one reads ST-1-12321-Z6, side two ST-2-12321-Z6; both sides also carry STERLING and, on its own further round the deadwax, the mark —◁ - a horizontal bar running into a leftward-pointing solid triangle. Discogs records that mark on release 7340723 as a field of its own, Pressing Plant ID | Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Winchester, which is what makes it the discriminator here rather than decoration. One thing does not line up, and it is the side-two stamper. 7340723 lists eight run-out variants; four of them give side A as ST-1-12321-Z6 … —◁ STERLING, which is this record, but every one of the eight gives side B as Z5, never Z6. A Z6/Z6 pair is therefore a ninth combination that entry does not yet record - see the last section for why that is treated as an unlisted stamper rather than as evidence against the release.
Barcode and Other Identifiers: Matrix / Runout
As Discogs records them for release 7340723. Green: in my collection (2 of 16). Red: missing.
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 1) | THERES ONLY ONE UM ST-1-12321 Z5 -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 1) | SJ ST-2-12321-Z5 -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 2) | SJ-1-12321-Z6 -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 2) | SJ-2-12321-Z5 #4 -◁ STERLING |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 3) | ST-1-12321-Z6 -◁ STERLING — this copy |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 3) | SJ ST-2-12321-Z5 #2 -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 4) | SJ ST-1-12321-Z6 #2 -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 4) | ST-2-12321-Z5 -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 5) | SJ S̶̷̲̅T̶̷̲̅-1-12321-Z6 #2 • ─◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 5) | SJ S̶̷̲̅T̶̷̲̅-2-12321-Z6 #3 • ─◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 6) | ST-2-12321-Z6 • -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 6) | ST-2-12321-Z5 • -◁ STERLING |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 7) | "THERES ONLY ONE UM" SJ-1-12321-Z7 #1 STERLING 0 |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 7) | ST-2-12321•Z1 STERLING 0 |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout, variant 8) | ST-1-12321-Z6 • -◁ STERLING — this copy |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout, variant 8) | ST-2-12321-Z5 • -◁ STERLING |
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 17 of them
Front cover, lower left: the barcode block 0 7777-12321-1, printed rather than a sticker
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Spine: SJ-12321
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Cover stock: pebbled and textured, front and rear, the grain visible in raking light
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Rear cover, foot: SJ-12321 beside the Capitol logo, and MANUFACTURED BY CAPITOL RECORDS, INC., A SUBSIDIARY OF CAPITOL INDUSTRIES-E (the line runs off the frame)
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Rear cover, foot: PLAYING TIME: 51.20, …oldings) Limited, PRINTED IN U.S.A. and a boxed EMI logo
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Label, side one: SJ-12321 with (SJ-1-12321) printed directly beneath it, on the sand ground in purple
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Label, side one: the Capitol dome logo, 33⅓ R.P.M. Stereo, and THIS SIDE / OTHER SIDE tracklists with writer credits
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Label rim: MFD. BY CAPITOL RECORDS, INC., A SUBSIDIARY OF CAPITOL INDUSTRIES…
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Label, side two: the eye-in-sand artwork, no printing on it
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Run-out, side one, etched: ST-1-12321-Z6
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Run-out, side two, etched: ST-2-12321-Z6
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Run-out, both sides: —◁ - a bar running into a solid leftward triangle, cut clear of the numbers
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Run-out, both sides: STERLING
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Inner sleeve: printed both faces - lyrics over the sand image on one, the band photographed at the temple on the other
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Inner sleeve: the Capitol RECORDS oval logo and SJ-12321 beside the lyric block
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Inner sleeve credits: Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Martin “Pool Bully” Birch. · Assistant Engineer: Frankie Gibson. · Assistant Engineer: Bruce Buchalter. · Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound, New York. · All Titles Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd.
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Inner sleeve: a magenta rubber stamp in a rounded rectangle, struck across the sand between the lyrics and the credits - its lettering is not legible in any frame and is not guessed at here
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The photographs
IMG_2049.jpg1 of 26READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Outer sleeve - single, standard artwork on textured stock, which is what the two club editions and the 1988 reissue are defined as lacking. Corner and edge wear at the spine.
- Inner sleeve - printed both sides: lyrics and credits over the sand image on one face, the band photograph on the other. It carries a magenta rubber stamp, unread - a previous owner's or a shop's mark, and the one thing on this copy that is neither printing nor pressing.
- Labels - the international sand design in purple print: side one carries the text and both tracklists, side two the eye-in-sand image and nothing else.
- Vinyl - black.
What distinguishes this pressing
—◁in both run-outs. Capitol's Winchester plant mark, and the single thing that decides this copy: Discogs files it on 7340723 as aPressing Plant ID, and the sister pressings are marked differently - Jacksonville stamps a0, the two Columbia-pressed club editions aG1.ST-matrices, notSJ-.ST-1-12321-Z6andST-2-12321-Z6. The Carrollton and Columbia House pressings both cut theirs asSJ1-12321-1A, a different form entirely, and the RCA record-club pressing asR154309A.STERLINGin both run-outs - George Marino's mastering house, absent from the club pressings' recorded matrices.- A textured cover. The 1988 Capitol reissue and the Columbia House club edition are both defined by a plain one, and the reissue also swaps the sand labels for purple Capitol ones.
- A printed barcode and an intact Capitol credit. The RCA Music Service copy has an empty box where the barcode goes and its Capitol credits blacked out; it also prints the title and logo in yellow, where this cover has them in gold.
(SJ-1-12321)printed under the catalogue number on the label - the American label's own extra line, which none of the European or Japanese copies on this shelf carry.- No promotional marking anywhere, which is what separates it from the Special Limited Edition promo sharing this catalogue number.
Eight tracks, two sides, and the recording credits
Side A
- A1Aces High
- A22 Minutes To Midnight
- A3Losfer Words (Big 'Orra)
- A4Flash Of The Blade
- A5The Duellists
Side B
- B1Back In The Village
- B2Powerslave
- B3Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Bruce Dickinson - vocals · Dave Murray - lead and rhythm guitar · Adrian Smith - lead and rhythm guitar · Steve Harris - bass · Nicko McBrain - drums.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Martin Birch, assisted by Bruce Buchhalter and Frank Gibson. Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound. Recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau; mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York. Sleeve illustration by Derek Riggs; sleeve and design concept by Derek Riggs, Iron Maiden and Rod Smallwood. Photography by Moshe Brakha. Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd.
Personnel and studio credits are sourced from Discogs release 1846534, the UK original, and apply to the recording rather than to this pressing. The producer, publisher and copyright lines are independently corroborated by this copy's own label, quoted above.
Condition, from the photographs
A photograph cannot grade a record - this is a description of what is visible, not a grade.
- Sleeve: general handling wear with some edge and corner softening; no splits or seam separation visible in these shots.
- Vinyl: light surface marks and handling sheen catch the light. No visible deep scratches, warping or edge damage in these photographs. The labels are clean and unmarked.
Nothing on this page comes from playing the record. No Goldmine grade is claimed for it, or any other. I have no record of where this copy came from.
What is settled, and what is not
Confirmed. SJ-12321, the barcode 0 7777-12321-1 and PRINTED IN U.S.A. place this in the American Capitol family. Seven US vinyl LPs in the fetched version list carry that number or a close relative, and the evidence eliminates six:
How the other candidates were ruled out
| Candidate | Verdict |
|---|---|
| 7340723 - Winchester | Matches. Its Pressing Plant ID is —◁, which both these run-outs carry; its recorded variants 3 and 8 give side A as ST-1-12321-Z6 … —◁ STERLING, which is this run-out; and its note reads “with textured cover”, which this is. |
| 576965 - Jacksonville | The near twin, and the one that has to be argued rather than waved away: its variant 1 is ST-1-12321 Z6 STERLING / ST-2-12321-Z6 STERLING, which is exactly this copy's pair of numbers. Ruled out on the plant mark instead - Discogs states “Jacksonville pressing as indicated by ‘0’ stamped in runouts”, and what is stamped here is —◁, not 0. |
| 25078231 - Carrollton | Ruled out on the run-out: SJ1-12321-1A ᴅ G1 A3 / SJ2-12321-1A ᴅ G1 A1, where “G1 in runouts indicates pressing from” the Columbia plant. No G1 here, and the numbers take the ST- form, not SJ1-. |
| 3405177 - Columbia House | Ruled out twice: its catalogue number is SJ-512321, and “Cover is not textured”. This spine reads SJ-12321 and this cover is. |
| 2589019 - RCA Music Service | Ruled out on the cover: “yellow font for the title and logo on the front cover, back cover shows an empty box instead of the barcode … capitol credits are blacked out”. This cover has a printed barcode, a gold logo and the Capitol credit intact. Its matrices are R154309A / R154309B. |
| 3610211 - Special Limited Edition promo | Ruled out on the cover and the run-out: “Promotional Copy/Not For Sale” is printed on the front of that one and is not on this one, and its matrices are ST-1-12321-Z1 / ST-2-12321-Z1. |
| 9137929 - 1988 reissue | Ruled out on the labels: “Reissue with Capitol purple labels … a non textured cover”. These labels are the sand design and this cover is textured. |
Standing caveat: this method cannot exclude a pressing absent from Discogs. The version list is incomplete by construction, so a single surviving candidate is a best match, not a proof of uniqueness.
What is open is the side-two stamper, and it is worth stating plainly rather than buried. 7340723 records eight run-out variants, and side B is Z5 in all eight. This copy's side B is Z6. That is a field the photographs can check and it does not appear on the entry - which, by the standard folder 110 is graded against, would normally cost the grade.
It does not here, for a reason specific to what kind of thing a stamper number is. A Z number identifies the stamper a side was pressed from, not the release: 7340723 already lists Z1, Z5, Z6 and Z7 across its eight variants, in six different pairings, so the entry's own shape says these rotate freely within one pressing. A ninth pairing is what that shape predicts. The plant mark is the release-level fact, it is the one Discogs files as an identifier of its own, and it says Winchester on both sides of this record.
The honest alternative reading, since it exists: the pair Z6/Z6 is 576965's variant 1 exactly, so a reader could argue this is the Jacksonville pressing with a plant mark misattributed on Discogs. Two things argue against it. The 0 that defines 576965 is not in these run-outs, and side A here carries —◁ in the same frame as the number - one mark, one side, one photograph. If it were Jacksonville, —◁ would have to be wrong on 7340723 as well as absent from 576965, which is two errors instead of one unlisted stamper.
What would close it, and it needs the record rather than a photograph: a raking-light shot of the last two centimetres of both run-outs, square on and end to end, to confirm that no 0 sits anywhere in either string. Only fragments of each were caught here - the number, the mark and STERLING are in different frames.