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News for all the 'Pressed Silver' Collectors out there... re: the Springsteen Archives

It was recently brought to my attention by a long time member here, Alan G, that he received a few pressed 'Silvers' when ordered from NUGS.  He had three in his possession and friends of his had four more making a total of seven and there may or may not be more that have already been distributed.

After much  investigation and corroboration... the above facts have been confirmed by NUGS.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me give you the facts chronologically as I know them.

1) As I said above I was contacted by Alan and it was the first I ever heard of pressed 'Silver' Springsteen Archives.  I asked some questions and found out this:

All of the pressed 'Silvers' have (IFPI #s and matrixes). This shows they are not CDRs with labels pasted on such as Doberman and others.   We may call original Doberman's, Silvers for expediency's sake but they are not and never were pressed.

Identifying pressed 'Silvers' when comparing them with CDrs is...  pressed 'Silvers' have the IFPI codes.

On many CDs, there are two Source Identification Codes (SID Code) in the matrix band. The SID Code, which was introduced in April 1994, consists of the letters IFPI (which stands for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), followed by 4 or 5 additional characters.

There are two different SID Codes found on CDs:

Mastering Code - The first SID Code in the matrix band is the "Mastering Code." The Mastering Code begins with "IFPI" followed by a sequence of digits beginning with the letter L, followed by two numbers that indicate the pressing plant, and then 1 or 2 additional digits that indicate the Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) that cut the glass master. The Mastering Code is put on the CD at the time the glass master of the CD is cut by the LBR, and it appears on all subsequent pressings of the CD sourced from that specific glass master.

The codes on these pressed 'Silver' archives are molded/stamped into the clear inner ring and are hard to read because they are the same color as the ring plastic.  Very tiny.  There are NO IFPI codes on any of the CDRs.   As described above, the existence of an IFPI should indicate a glass master for a pressed 'Silver'.   

In addition, CDRs have “dot matrix” appearing numbers in the center plastic ring, no IFPI markings and no matrix numbers. 

Nugs releases for Pearl Jam were originally pressed 'Silvers' for several years. 
The (IFPI) markings are on these Pearl Jam pressed 'Silvers' released by Nugs. What is interesting is that the matrix numbers are far shorter and less intricate on the Bruce pressings, we don't know why.  Nugs does not press any themselves, it may just be a different producer from those that pressed the Springsteen 'Silvers'.
Below is an example of a Pearl Jam Nugs Pressed Silver:  Matrixes and IFPI Code      (Aug 29, 2000 show 43)
 This is an example of a Springsteen pressed 'Silver issued by NUGS:
An interesting note on these is that sometime they're first pressings and sometimes they are not.  So you can get one if you're one of the first to order or one of the last.  Alan G, who started this investigation received two pressed 'Silvers' as part of a 12  show order.
Below are the known Springsteen pressed 'Silvers' issued by NUGS.  Realize CDR's were also issued by NUGS for these dates. (See Below)
Roxy 75
MSG 79
MSG 88
Michigan 2005
Rome 2016
All NJ Metlife 2016
In closing, I contacted NUGS to get confirmation on all of the above.  NUGS was very forthcoming and explained:
It is accurate that certain past releases have had an initial pressing on silver CDs. Sorry, I don't have a list of the shows. We don't stock any of them. They were all shipped out upon release.
I asked if there was any rhyme or reason why certain dates were pressed 'Silvers' and others were not?   I was told.... 
It's usually a very busy time (for NUGS) when a particular date gets farmed out due to the busy production time ...plus high volume pre-orders for particular releases. 
I took that to mean that they may have more than one artist being released at that time and they contract out to others to do the pressing. eg: Phish, Pearl Jam, Bruce... etc.
I am not a 'Silver' collector by nature.  I have a few however my entire collection has been digitized with 'Silvers' duly noted.  I would imagine that these rare Archive 'Silvers' will be highly valued by collectors.
All of the above info was new to me prior to last week.  I welcome all comments and or any new information and or corrections.

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The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

Last edited by Oats
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