LAZYBOY FOR UK EMI AND DECCA MOTHER-STAMPERS

I guess many record collectors are familiar with this subject already as details can be found on various places on the net, but I still meet aspiring gathereres who'd never thought about it and also get questions on it by mail. If you don't wanna plow through expert articles here's a condensed lazyboy for quick learning. Most may know matrix number is cruisal for knowing how early the press is, but there is also a way to narrow it down further by checking the mothers and stampers. For UK Decca and EMI issues up late seventies you can find the matrix no. at six'o'clock on the dead vinyl, the mother no. at nine and the stamper letter at three. For UK EMI the stampers should be read G=1 /R=2/ A=3 /M=4 /O=5 /P=6 /H=7 /L=8 /T=9 /D=0. UK Decca used following B=1 /U=2 /C=3 /K=4 /I=5 /N=6 /G=7 /H=8 /A=9 /M=0. If you have one of those with 1st matrix, 1st mother and a single stamper letter that means a very early press. How many copies made from each stamper shifted a lot. For EMI up to the late sixties the numbers were somewhere between 300-800, while Decca in some cases used them for a longer duration. So if for exemple any of your Beatles Parlophone or Apple originals have earliest matrix and the 1/G, or the Stones on Decca 1/B, it is one of the very first copies pressed and should add considerably to the value. (ZLEÄ*)