Folder 150
Europe
The mirror ring, read off the object: 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH, mould SID IFPI L578. The strongest thing this copy carries, and it does real work - it names the pressing plant and rules out every Brazilian row. It stops short of settling the entry only because the committed version list records no matrix or SID field for either European row to compare it against.
What the record says
Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photograph named beside it.
Read off this copy under raking light, across four frames. The ring carries 0190295567705, the etched number AJ58608-01, the plant statement manufactured by optimal media GmbH and the mould SID IFPI L578. The owner's own run-out note, handed over with the batch, reads the same string - so the ring is corroborated twice, by camera and by eye, and the two readings agree.
0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy's ring matches 7 of the 9 matrix entries Discogs records — Variant 1, Variant 2, Variant 3, Variant 4, Variant 5, Variant 6 and Variant 9 — which record the same string, so it cannot be narrowed to one.
Barcode and Other Identifiers: Matrix / Runout
As Discogs records them for release 21168847. Green: in my collection (7 of 9). Red: missing.
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 1) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 2) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 3) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 4) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 5) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 6) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 7) | 0190295567705 AJ58403-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH |
| ✗ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 8) | 0190295567705 AJ58403-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH |
| ✓ | Matrix / Runout (Variant 9) | 0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH — this copy |
Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 22 of them
Front cover: the Derek Riggs cityscape, IRON MAIDEN over SOMEWHERE IN TIME, on a card digipak with visibly worn corners
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Rear cover: the eight titles, PRODUCED, ENGINEERED AND MIXED BY MARTIN BIRCH, the barcode block and the Parlophone device
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Rear cover barcode at native resolution: 0 190295 567705 with the Parlophone £-device beneath it
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Rear cover foot line at native resolution: Original ℗ 1986. Remaster ℗ 2015. The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Iron Maiden LLP under exclusive license to Parlophone Records Ltd, a Warner Music Group. © 2019 Iron Maiden LLP. This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved. closing on 0190295567705
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The same barcode and Parlophone device from the opposite orientation, confirming the digits read the same way up
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Digipak open: the band photograph on the left panel, the disc seated in a clear tray on the right
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Disc face: IRON MAIDEN / SOMEWHERE IN TIME in green over a green triangle, the eight titles round the rim
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The empty tray, showing the Eddie artwork printed on the panel beneath it
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Booklet pages 2-3: tracklist with timings and the five-man line-up
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Booklet pages 4-5: lyrics to Caught Somewhere In Time and Wasted Years
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Booklet pages 6-7: Sea Of Madness and Heaven Can Wait
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Booklet pages 8-9: The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner and Stranger In A Strange Land
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Booklet pages 10-11: Deja-Vu and Alexander The Great, with Lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Imagem London Ltd.
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Booklet pages 12-13, the credit block: Remastered by Tony Newton & Ade Emsley, Reissue Layout: Hugh Gilmour, All tracks administered by Imagem London Ltd.
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Booklet pages 14-15: the hexagram panel and the buggy group shot
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Disc rim at native resolution: ORIGINAL ℗ 1986. REMASTER ℗ 2015 ... **MADE IN EU. LC0542. SDRM BIEM. 0190295567705** above the Parlophone device
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Inner mirror ring under raking light: 0190295567705 and the start of AJ58608-0…
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Mirror ring, next arc: AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH
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Mirror ring, the same arc closing on GmbH with IFPI and the start of the mould code just legible beyond it
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Mirror ring, manufactured by optimal media GmbH square on
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Mould SID code at native resolution: IFPI L578
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The whole inner ring in one frame, showing the ATIP bar pattern and the etched strings running round it
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The photographs
IMG_3072.jpg1 of 22READ FROM
The object, and what marks it out
Sleeve, labels and inserts
- Card digipak, not a jewel case - a single hinged card wallet with the band photograph on the inner left panel and the disc in a clear tray on the right. The corners are rubbed through to the white card at three of the four edges photographed.
- Full bound booklet, sixteen pages, complete lyrics and the reissue credit block. Photographed spread by spread, pages 2 through 15.
- Two country statements, and they agree. The disc rim says
MADE IN EU; the mirror ring namesoptimal media GmbH, a German plant. Nothing on the packaging states a different country. - The disc was out of the tray and shot under raking light, so the mirror ring - the CD's deadwax - is on the record here rather than missing, which is what took the four Brazilian rows off the list.
What distinguishes this pressing
- The mirror ring, read off the object:
0190295567705 AJ58608-01 manufactured by optimal media GmbH, mould SIDIFPI L578. The strongest thing this copy carries, and it does real work - it names the pressing plant and rules out every Brazilian row. It stops short of settling the entry only because the committed version list records no matrix or SID field for either European row to compare it against. MADE IN EUon the disc rim. Corroborates the ring's German plant and excludes the Brazilian rows independently of it.- Barcode
0190295567705. The match axis, carried by six of the seven 2019-era CD rows. It excludes the UK row 13421525 (0190295567675) and nothing else - a barcode is shared across pressings of one commercial release, so it corroborates the release and never the pressing. LC0542andSDRM BIEMon the disc rim.LC0542is Parlophone's label code andBIEMis the international bureau, not a country;SDRMis the French society, carried on European Parlophone product generally. None of the three separates the two surviving rows.- The 2015 remaster and 2019 copyright lines. Both European rows are the same 2019 reissue of the same 2015 remaster, so these date the edition and choose nothing within it.
Eight tracks, and the recording credits
Tracks 1-4
- 1Caught Somewhere In Time
- 2Wasted Years
- 3Sea Of Madness
- 4Heaven Can Wait
Tracks 5-8
- 5The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
- 6Stranger In A Strange Land
- 7Deja-Vu
- 8Alexander The Great
Bruce Dickinson - vocals · Dave Murray - lead and rhythm guitar, guitar synthesizer · Adrian Smith - lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals, guitar synthesizer · Steve Harris - bass, bass synth · Nicko McBrain - drums.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Martin Birch. Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound. Bass, bass synth and drums recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau; guitars, vocals and guitar synth recorded at Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum; mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York. Sleeve illustration by Derek Riggs; sleeve concept by Derek Riggs and Rod Smallwood. Inner sleeve photograph by Aaron Rapoport. Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd.
Personnel and studio credits are sourced from Discogs release 1701390, the UK original, and apply to the recording rather than to this pressing. Where this copy's own packaging carries the producer, publisher or copyright lines, they are quoted in the evidence above.
Condition, from the photographs
A photograph cannot grade a record - this is a description of what is visible, not a grade.
- Case/inlay: general handling wear with some edge and corner softening; no cracks or splits visible in these shots.
- Disc: light surface marks and handling sheen catch the light. No visible deep scratches or disc-face damage in these photographs.
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
Settled by the owner on 2026-09-19 -- the closing paragraph of this section says so, and the grade above follows it. What comes first is the photographic case exactly as it stood before that, present tense and all: where it says this copy stops at Narrowed, it means the photographs stop there, which is still true and is why the candidates are still listed.
The plant is pinned down; the row is not. The mirror ring names Optimal Media and the rim says MADE IN EU, which between them clear out the four Brazilian rows sharing this barcode, and the barcode itself clears out the UK row on 0190295567675. What is left is two European Parlophone rows, 13426241 and 21168847, that the committed version list records identically on every field it holds - label, country, catalogue number, year, format string. There is no eighth string to read off this copy: the disc, the rim, the ring, the digipak and every booklet spread are all photographed, and the owner's run-out reading adds nothing the camera missed.
What is missing is on the Discogs side, not the shelf side. Each of the two rows has its own release page with its own matrix and SID fields; the committed version list carries neither. Pulling those two pages and checking AJ58608-01 and IFPI L578 against what each records is what closes this - and if both record the same ring, or neither records one at all, then the honest answer stays Narrowed and the two rows are a duplicate on Discogs rather than a distinction on the shelf.
Pinned by the owner, 2026-09-19. Everything above is what the photographs support on their own, and it is left standing unedited. On top of it the owner identifies this copy as Discogs 21168847, and the folder is graded on that. It is an owner's judgement, not a new detail in the frames: withdraw it and the case reverts to the narrowing above.