John Coltrane — Blue Train: How to Identify a First Pressing

• Label: The earliest copies (released November 1957) have the label's studio/office address at the time, '47 West 63rd', printed on them — a key address clue for identifying a very early first pressing; the address later changed as the label relocated.
• Runout / matrix: The matrix (runout) area shows the letters 'RVG' — the signature-style stamp of recording/mastering engineer Rudy Van Gelder — a key marker confirming that Van Gelder personally cut the master, rather than a later outsourced re-cutting.
• Other: Early pressings show a 'deep groove' feature (a physical ring impression around the outer edge of the label), but some later reissue copies no longer have this ring on one or both sides — a useful supplementary clue, though it cannot serve as the sole dating criterion on its own.
• Other: If the label carries legal text such as 'INC' or the registered-trademark symbol '®', that generally indicates the copy was pressed after the end of 1959, which can be used to rule out a very early first pressing.

• The appearance of 'INC' and the registered-trademark symbol '®' on the label marks a copy pressed at the end of 1959 or later, distinguishing it from earlier copies (which lack this text); accurate dating still requires weighing multiple features together — sleeve-lamination sheen, inner-sleeve design, vinyl weight, and so on — rather than relying on any single feature.

Neither discogs.com nor bluenote.com's specific album pages yielded this level of detail in this research environment; the vinyl-collecting blog londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com (a long-running site focused on label-version identification for Blue Note, Impulse!, and other jazz labels, and not a pricing site) was used as the source instead.

• Read the runout (the smooth area between the last groove and the label) with the disc tilted under a lamp: matrix numbers, stamper codes and mastering initials are the strongest evidence.
• Label details change between pressing plants and years: rim text, logo style, address, "Manufactured by" wording.
• Cover printing shows the plant and era: printer credit, catalog number position, barcode presence.
• Match all three. A first-press disc in a later cover, or the reverse, is common.

Shoot the label straight on in even light, then the runout with the disc tilted so the etched text catches the light (a phone torch from the side works). Add the front and back cover, the spine, and any inner sleeve or insert. The app reads the label and cover; the runout photo is what confirms the pressing.