The Beatles – A Hard Day's Night

The main differentiator of this early pressing, compared to later versions, is the black and yellow Parlophone label with the perimeter rim copyright text, 'THE PARLOPHONE CO LTD • ALL RIGHTS OF THE MANUFACTURER AND OF THE OWNER OF THE RECORDING WORK RESERVED • UNAUTHORISED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE BROADCASTING AND COPYING OF THIS RECORD PROHIBITED'. Above the spindle hole the centre text, 'SOLD IN THE U.K. SUBJECT TO RESALE PRICE CONDITIONS, SEE PRICE LISTS'.

There are a number of other differentiators present on both the labels and the cover.

Label:
1 - Has a 'chubby' font with the right-hand side indicator numerals appearing under the '2' in the catalogue number 'PMC 1230' above them.
2 - The publishing copyright date is given as 'RECORDING FIRST PUBLISHED 1964', and is nearly left-aligned compared to the matrix number above it.
3 - The group's name 'THE BEATLES' is closer to the 'Northern Songs Music Ltd.' publishing credit below it than the '(Lennon-McCartney)' credit above it.
4 - A2 'I Should Have Known Better' has it's title split over 2 lines.
5 - All of the song titles on side 2 appear on separate lines.
6 - The MT purchase tax code embossing on the label on either side of the spindle hole. A similar variant has the code KT.

Cover:
1 - Front laminated, tri-flipback and printed by Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd., with a medium 'MONO' indicator on the front, top, right hand corner.

The runouts are stamped