Folder 169

UK

UK, 1996. The limited four-LP box, EMDX 1097: every label says MADE IN THE U.K. outright, and the four per-record catalogue numbers printed on them run 53186 to 53189 exactly as EMI's UK release records them.

Catalogue: EMDX 1097
Label: EMI United Kingdom
Released: 1996
Confidence: Confirmed
Why this grade
Two vinyl versions on this master share the catalogue number EMDX 1097 - the UK box and a US one - so the catalogue number alone settles nothing. MADE IN THE U.K., printed on all eight labels and again as Printed in the UK. on the rear of the box, is what separates them. Three further marks the UK release records are all present and correct: the label code LC 0542, the price code F, PM 813, and the four per-record catalogue numbers 7243 8 53186 1 0, 7243 8 53187 1 9, 7243 8 53188 1 8 and 7243 8 53189 1 7 - one per record, each matching the identifier Discogs files under that record. The version list is incomplete by construction, so an uncatalogued pressing cannot be excluded.
Reference: Discogs 951892
Median sale: DKK 3,015 (kept from 2026-09-23)
Sale range: DKK 2,093-3,741
On sale now: 15, from DKK 2,469
Last sold: 6 September 2026

What the record says

Every line below was read off a native-resolution crop of the photo named beside it, except where the source column says otherwise - those rows come from the record itself, by reading it or by playing it, and each says which.

Run-out photographed, all eight sides. Each is the record's own catalogue stem with a side letter and a stamper chain: EMDX 10971 A, EMDX 10971 B, EMDX 10972 A, EMDX 10972 B, EMDX 10973 A, EMDX 10973 B, EMDX 10974 A, EMDX 10974 B. A circled M is cut separately into the run-out beside the number, which is the mark Discogs records on every side of this release. The owner's own reading by eye adds the stamper chain on each side as -1-1-; Discogs records a fourth character after it that varies side to side, and no frame here resolves it. One line of that note, for vinyl 1 side B, reads EMDX 0971 - a digit short of the seven other sides and of the label on the same record.

Barcode and Other Identifiers: Matrix / Runout

As Discogs records them for release 951892. Green: in my collection (5 of 8). Red: missing.

✗	Matrix / Runout (Side A, runout stamped)	`EMDX 10971 A-1-1-1 Ⓜ`
✗	Matrix / Runout (Side B, runout etched)	`EMDX 10971 B-1-1-1 Ⓜ`
✓	Matrix / Runout (Side C, runout etched)	`EMDX 10972 A-1-1-˙ Ⓜ` — this copy
✓	Matrix / Runout (Side D, runout etched)	`EMDX 10972 B-1-1-˙ Ⓜ` — this copy
✓	Matrix / Runout (Side E, runout etched)	`EMDX 10973 A-1-1-˙ Ⓜ` — this copy
✓	Matrix / Runout (Side F, runout etched)	`EMDX 10973 B-1-1-˙ Ⓜ` — this copy
✓	Matrix / Runout (Side G, runout etched)	`EMDX 10974 A-1-1-: Ⓜ` — this copy
✗	Matrix / Runout (Side H, runout etched)	`EMDX 10974 B-1-1-1 Ⓜ`

Every line of small print, and the photograph it came from — 22 of them

Box, front: IRON MAIDEN / Best Of The Beast, with a red sticker reading AVAILABLE SOON... MELT EDDIE'S OWN 3D STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPUTER GAME 7243 8 53185 1 1

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Box, rear: barcode 7243 8 53185 1 1 / 7 24385 31851 1, beside it UK: EMDX 1097, Printed in the UK., F, PM 813 and Place of manufacture as stated on label. Marketed and Distributed by EMI, with the boxed EMI UNITED KINGDOM mark

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Box, rear: the four-record tracklist, headed VINYL ONE to VINYL FOUR, each split SIDE 1 and SIDE 2

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Hardcover book: black boards with IRON MAIDEN / Best Of The Beast blocked in gold, opening onto a two-page live photo montage

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Inner sleeve, vinyl one: 7243 8 53185 1 1 above (7243 8 53186 1 0), under the EMI UNITED KINGDOM mark

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Label, vinyl 1 side A: VINYL 1, EMDX 10971A, 7243 8 53185 1 1, (7243 8 53186 1 0), LC 0542 · STEREO · 33⅓ rpm, and around the rim LC 0542. MADE IN THE U.K.

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Label, vinyl 1 side B: VINYL 1, EMDX 10971B, same numbers and the same MADE IN THE U.K. rim text

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Label, vinyl 2 side A: VINYL 2, EMDX 10972A, (7243 8 53187 1 9)

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Label, vinyl 2 side B: VINYL 2, EMDX 10972B, (7243 8 53187 1 9), MADE IN THE U.K.

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Label, vinyl 3 side A: VINYL 3, EMDX 10973A, (7243 8 53188 1 8)

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Label, vinyl 3 side B: VINYL 3, EMDX 10973B, (7243 8 53188 1 8), MADE IN THE U.K.

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Label, vinyl 4 side A: VINYL 4, EMDX 10974A, (7243 8 53189 1 7)

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Label, vinyl 4 side B: VINYL 4, EMDX 10974B, (7243 8 53189 1 7), MADE IN THE U.K.

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Run-out, vinyl 1: EMDX 10971 with a side letter, on both sides

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Run-out, vinyl 1: a circled M cut beside the number

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Run-out, vinyl 2: EMDX 10972 with a side letter, on both sides

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Run-out, vinyl 3: EMDX 10973 with a side letter, on both sides

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Run-out, vinyl 4: EMDX 10974 with a side letter, on both sides, and a further circled M

IMG_3663.jpeg, IMG_3664.jpeg, IMG_3665.jpeg, IMG_3666.jpeg, IMG_3667.jpeg, IMG_3668.jpeg, IMG_3669.jpeg, IMG_3670.jpeg, IMG_3671.jpeg, IMG_3672.jpeg, IMG_3673.jpeg

Jacket, vinyl one: VINYL ONE over the 1995 band portrait in front of the electric chair

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Jacket, vinyl three: VINYL THREE over the 1984 beach portrait

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Run-out, all eight sides, as the owner read them by eye: EMDX 10971 A-1-1-, EMDX 0971 B-1-1-, EMDX 10972 A-1-1-, EMDX 10972 B-1-1-, EMDX 10973 A-1-1-, EMDX 10973 B-1-1-, EMDX 10974 A-1-1-, EMDX 10974 B-1-1-

dead wax infomation.txt

The photographs

IMG_3604.jpg1 of 70READ FROM

The object, and what marks it out

Sleeve, labels and inserts

Heavyweight hard-cover box, square-cornered rather than a sleeve, carrying the Derek Riggs front painting of seven Eddies and the four-record tracklist on the back. A clear film is still over it, creased along the top and split at the top left corner; the box itself has been opened.
Hardcover book, black boards with the title blocked in gold, photographs and artwork inside.
Four black vinyl records, each in its own glossy colour jacket headed VINYL ONE to VINYL FOUR, inside thin card inner sleeves.
Eight picture labels, a different image per side - the barbed-wire Eddie, the 1995 live shot, the newspaper collage, the Powerslave pyramid, the first-album Eddie - all with the boxed EMI UNITED KINGDOM mark at the foot.
MELT sticker, round and red, top left of the front. A crease runs across it and on into the painting below, so it sits under the same film the rest of the front does rather than on the card.

What distinguishes this pressing

MADE IN THE U.K. around the rim of all eight labels, and Printed in the UK. on the rear of the box - the country stated outright, twice, in two places.
The four per-record catalogue numbers 7243 8 53186 1 0, 7243 8 53187 1 9, 7243 8 53188 1 8 and 7243 8 53189 1 7, one printed on each record's own labels and inner sleeve.
LC 0542, the EMI United Kingdom label code, on every label.
F, PM 813 in the price-code box on the rear of the box, which is the price code Discogs records for 951892. Corroboration rather than a discriminator: the other vinyl versions have no identifiers recorded at all, so nothing here shows they lack it.
The circled M cut into the run-out, which Discogs records on every side of this release.

Thirty-four tracks, two sides, and the recording credits

Side A

A1Virus
A2Sign Of The Cross
A3Afraid To Shoot Strangers (Live)
B1Man On The Edge
B2Be Quick Or Be Dead
B3Fear Of The Dark (Live)
B4Holy Smoke
B5Bring Your Daughter... ...To The Slaughter
C1Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
C2Can I Play With Madness
C3The Evil That Men Do
C4The Clairvoyant
D1Heaven Can Wait
D2Wasted Years
D32 Minutes To Midnight
D4Running Free (Live)

Side B

E1Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (Live)
E2Aces High
E3Where Eagles Dare
E4The Trooper
F1The Number Of The Beast
F2Revelations (Live)
F3The Prisoner
F4Run To The Hills
F5Hallowed Be Thy Name
G1Wrathchild
G2Killers
G3Remember Tomorrow
G4Phantom Of The Opera
G5Sanctuary
H1Prowler
H2Invasion
H3Strange World
H4Iron Maiden

A thirty-four-track career retrospective issued in 1996, running in reverse chronological order from Virus back to the 1980 debut. The recordings it collects were made across seventeen years by several different Iron Maiden line-ups, so no single set of session credits applies to the record as a whole. The release credits the front-cover illustration to Derek Riggs, the liner notes to Keith Wilfort, the packaging to Barry Kade and Whole Hog Design, and publishing to Zomba Music Publishers Ltd. The lacquers were cut at Metropolis Mastering and the records pressed by EMI Records.

Compilation credits are sourced from Discogs release 951892, the UK four-LP box, and apply to the 1996 release rather than to any one pressing. The copyright and licence lines are independently corroborated by this copy's own labels and box, 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.

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

Nothing outstanding. The country statement, the catalogue number, the four per-record numbers and the label code all point one way, and the only other vinyl version sharing EMDX 1097 is release 8691447, whose own capture records four LPs in a box for the US market - which MADE IN THE U.K. rules out.