The Beatles Abbey Road - first or second pressing?

I recently picked up an original UK pressing of Abbey Road from 1969 for 60€. I did some research and realized that it might actually be the second pressing of the album and not the first. Every website says something different... Could you help me out finding which pressing it is? and also give the approximate value of this pressing?
Thanks

Here are the Photos of the LP I own

 

Her Majesty is credited on label and apple on back cover is aligned with text, so not one of the earliest copies. Nevertheless it might still be pressed using the same stampers as 1st pressings. Check the etchings in the runout areas. If they are YEX 749-2 A side and YEX 750-1 B side, then you've got the sound of first press for less money.

 

Yes! YEX 749-2 and YEX 750-1 are indeed written in the dead wax areas of the record. So this record is pretty much the second version of the first pressing of the album? what is the estimated value of the album I got?

 

With such big albums as Abbey Road it always depends. There are just too many variations. It was released across the globe so here you can speak only of first or later UK press, and then from audio standpoint you have the 1st cut but in terms of sleeve and label variations it is one of the later versions.
As for the price, I believe you've paid the fair price for it if it's in true VG+ condition or better.

 

Sorry, not a 1969 pressing.

Early "light green" type labels like these were introduced no earlier than 1972.
Text font on these differs from previous "dark green" AR labels.
Large Ⓟ symbol replaced small Ⓟ in Sept. 1970.
I could go on about the cover and the inner sleeve...

Depends on the condition... I have the exact same pressing of AR, and I've never heard a better version of the album... Somehow it sounds better than early -2/-1 pressings that I've heard.

 

The bolded part is incorrect. Her Majesty/No Her Majesty, aligned apple/unaligned apple, black inner/white inner are just variations, not delineators of pressings. All iterations were available upon initial release. Some are less common than others; none are "rare".

The only difference between a -2/-1 with Her Majesty on the label and a -2/-1 w/o Her Majesty on the label is the piece of paper embedded into the middle of the vinyl came from different batches.

I can't see the OP's pictures, but if it is a light green Apple label, then Alex is correct (however I disagree with Alex on the size of the circle P being indicative of a Sept 1970 date - or probably any date certain).

 

I concur that there's no certain date. Looking back at my notes, the often-mentioned September may even be a bit too early. October or November would be a better guess based on studying EMI-pressed LP's and 45's released in 1970. If we're talking Apple Records, late September titles including John Tavener's The Whale (SAPCOR 15) and Ringo's Beaucoups Of Blues (PAS 10002) were first pressed on dark green labels with the small-type Ⓟ. But then, Mary Hopkin's Think About Your Children (APPLE 30, mid-October release) and even James Taylor's Carolina In My Mind (APPLE 32, early November release) also came with the "small" Ⓟ. However, the earliest copies of Badfinger's No Matter What single (APPLE 31, early November) and No Dice album (SAPCOR 16, late November) already carried the "large" Ⓟ...

 

IIRC 1st pressings of the Beatles Blue & Red albums had the small circle P. I suspect - but can’t prove - that the different sized circle P’s are just another variation which had no defined implementation.

 

The real "small" Ⓟ was different in that it was obviously smaller in size than the following digits. It's pretty clear that they got rid of it by the end of 1970. It wasn't just another variation, but a very noticeable change that affected multiple EMI-pressed labels, not just Apple.

 

Congratulaions on owning a -2/-1 pressing. It is all you need to have.
Don't worry about misaligned apples, black or white inners, Her Majesty credits or no. These are not important.

Now the only thing I would say is genuine Near Mint ones are fairly common here in the UK. I have several. So I would say upgrade to NM if you can.

 

So the obviously smaller P on a ‘70 record is obviously smaller, but the same obviously smaller P on a ‘73 record isn’t obviously smaller?

Sorry I’m not buying the smaller P thing.

 

I still remember us arguing about that a couple years ago, though I still disagree.

Here is a first pressing of "Red Album" from 1973, as You can see it's not standard apple label - apple is larger, fonts are different and the whole layout is different. Though (P) is large, same size as year next to it.

 

A couple of Apple labels for reference, one from 1970 and another from 1973. See the difference?

 

As for "Abbey Road", here is a first pressing. Dark apple, small (P), no "Her Magesty"

 

I never noticed until now that the song title had an exclamation mark (Hey Jude!)

 

Second pressing - the same just this time with "Her Magesty"

 

Third pressing - light apple, matte labels, usually on thicker vinyl and large (P). Also usually comes in Apple inner sleeve just like topic starter has.

 

All three of them have same first matrix numbers -2/-1

 

I love this stuff.

I'm actually old enough to remember Abbey Road UK import pressings on the record stands. There were a few to be found here in Northern California at the time.

The year after its release, in my local record store in Lafayette, California, the proprietor told me that the 2/1 release that doesn't list "Her Majesty" actually represented the first run, as it was a secret track - and the ones that included that track on the cover/label came later.

It always stuck with me. I was fond of that ditty at the end, no pun intended. Secret tracks were considered super cool by the cognoscenti - and particularly so in 5th grade.

But if you look at the Wikepedia listing, it indicates the inclusion of "Her Majesty" was actually a production mistake. That's why it wasn't initially listed - McCartney mentions this in The Beatles Anthology.

Her Majesty (song) - Wikipedia

So either way, that was the word on the street. He had noticed this detail in the copies he had received at his shop via the importer. That was Jem, I believe - it was usually their stickers on the UK albums back then.

 

I honestly don't know why you're making it so difficult. On the 1962-1966 album, the Ⓟ is NOT at all smaller than the following digits, which makes it different from the real (pre-November 1970) small-type Ⓟ. Two different things!

 

That's exactly what the OP has. The earliest type of "light green" labels with different font, circa 1972.

But there was another variation before that one... Dark green labels, large Ⓟ. Cover identical to the earlier copies. White inner sleeve ("IMPORTANT NOTICE COPYRIGHT EXISTS IN ALL APPLE RECORDINGS" or "PATENT NO 1.125.155." with "MADE IN ENGLAND").





That's what was used from circa November 1970 until the switch to the "light green" Apple somewhere in 1972.

 

And here's a previous label variation that's not to be missed as well! Dark green Apple, small Ⓟ, "33 1/3" large and centered like on the aforementioned later labels.






Photos from Discogs.

 

That one is circa 1970.
Covers were identical to the earlier (non-misaligned, of course) copies.
White inner sleeves ("IMPORTANT NOTICE COPYRIGHT EXISTS IN ALL APPLE RECORDINGS" or "PATENT NO 1.125.155." with "MADE IN ENGLAND") were used.

And, of course, the 1967-1970 album also has absolutely nothing to do with the pre-November 1970 "small Ⓟ" labels.

 

So what?? The circle P on the ‘73 album is the same as the circle P in ‘69. Are you now conveniently moving the goal posts to say, ooops it’s actually the combination of the circle P AND the size of the font following the circle P which is the chronological delineator? What’s next?

The typeset on labels wasn’t always consistent in the days before computers. It’s simply not as clean and linear as you (and others) try to romanticize it in order to create order out of disorder.

 

Word on the street in 1969 was essentially the telephone game. Do an historical search on ebay, popsike or discogs. There are too many copies with all of the possible iterations for the word on the street to be true.