Europe

Sleeve, labels and inserts

• Standard jewel case, opened. The disc is out of the tray in one frame and in it in another, so both faces of the packaging were photographed.
• The IMC666 sticker is on the front of the case as photographed. Whether it sits on the shrink-wrap or on the inlay beneath it cannot be told from these frames.
• Tray card - printed with the artwork, and the tray itself carries a moulded code beginning TM05. It bears no COMPACT DISC DIGITAL AUDIO device, which the tray in folder 105 does.
• Two country statements, and they do not contradict each other. The inlay says MADE IN HOLLAND of the printing; the disc rim says MADE IN EU of the disc. Three of the five candidates record exactly this pair.

What distinguishes this pressing

• The runout number 010503, read directly off the disc - the actual discriminator. Recorded on six of 6968974's fifteen matrix variants and on none of the other four candidates', whose variants belong to different numbering families (1-x-x-NL, 0104xx-NL, or a different plant entirely).
• BEL/BIEM/ S.I.A.E. on the disc - the one piece of evidence here that genuinely narrows. Five of the eight European rows carry it; three carry a bel BIEM device instead and are excluded, folder 105 among them.
• IMC666 on the front sticker - evidence, and initially treated as pointing to 9864874, but not a discriminator. It is recorded on 9864874 and on 7400798, a 2014 Parlophone repress; a sticker that appears on two pressings sixteen years apart is a distributor's marking, not a release's, and the four other candidates could carry it without Discogs recording it.
• MADE IN HOLLAND on the inlay - not a country discriminator, and the correction that invalidated this entry's original, wrong Confirmed grade against 9864874. 10366435 is manufactured by Optimal Media in Germany and its own notes read On rear cover: Made in Holland. The rear cover's country line describes a print run, not a plant.
• Barcode 7 24349 68640 3, UK: 496 8640, PM 520 and LC 0542 - the match axis, carried identically by all five. No help whatever.
• The TM05... moulding code on the tray - on the object, final characters illegible, and recorded against nothing: Discogs holds no tray codes for any of these rows. It does differ visibly from folder 105's tray, which carries COMPACT DISC DIGITAL AUDIO devices instead.

• 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.