BEATLES Strawberry Fields Forever UK Pic Sl. MINT MINT

	£		325
	$		431

On 17 February 1967 EMI/Parlophone UK released the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane single on Parlophone R5570. What made this record stand apart from its predecessors was that it was the very FIRST time a Beatles single came in a Picture Sleeve. The picture sleeve showed a current photo of the Beatles on the front, while on the rear four childhood snapshots of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were pictured.

According to the Beatles Book Monthly (issue 43) only the first 25,000 copies were issued with this picture sleeve. This figure is quite debatable, and probably a few thousand more copies were made. Whatever, the paper quality of this cover is quite flimsy and as soon as the singles were stocked in shops, the sleeves would start suffering from ringwear, folding, creasing, seam splits and, over the years, discoloring and other anomalies.

However, one EMI employee had the foresight to save a few copies of this cover and stored them for 43 (!) years in a safe, dark place, where no harm could be done to the copies he kept.

This particular copy is from that EMI employee, and it is in a STUNNING, MINT condition! You will never, ever, find a better copy, period! There has NEVER been a disc inside this sleeve, this sleeve has NEVER seen the light of day and is in as stunning a condition as if it came straight from the presses! There are absolutely NO faults to be found with this copy. No creasing, no folding, no discoloring, no tears, no wear, and NO signs that a single ever was inserted into this cover! Yet, this is a 100% original copy as manufactured in 1967 by Garrod & Lofthouse of Great Britain. Not many copies will have survived without the slightest anomaly! This is a museum piece, no doubt about that! Imagine finding yourself in a time capsule and going back to 1967 to the printers who actually produced this beautiful picture cover! That would be the only alternative to find a MINT copy like this! I never ever use the term MINT on any item I sell, but I safely employ that same term here! THIS IS A TOTALLY AND INDISPUTABLE * MINT * COPY of the original 1967 UK picture cover for the Beatles' monumental single Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane. And we have to thank the EMI employee for saving a few copies for the future (which is NOW) so that the lucky buyer of this absolutely rare item can say he holds a truly MINT copy of this Fab Pic Sleeve!

I cannot express enough the RARITY of finding a MINT copy of this. Sure, lots of very nice copies have turned up in recent years, where only a few minor hints of use were evident, such as the unevitable ring wear that every single has, even if it has been stored like that for a relative short period of time. NO. This particular copy has NEVER, EVER had a disc inside of it! It is 100%, flawless, absolutely and totally MINT * MINT * MINT !!!!

Every self respecting Beatles collector has a copy of this sleeve in his or her possession, but I am willing to bet that NO ONE has a truly MINT copy like this one. This sleeve should be mounted and displayed in a sun free area, or kept in a vault. How rare is a picture sleeve from 43 years ago by the world's most famous rock group, which has NOT been used, which has been hardly touched by human hands and which is still in its original MINT condition the way it came off the presses in 1967!?

Please not that there WILL be postage cost (and, taking into account the rarity and value of this item, I will ONLY ship registered), despite eBay's insistence that foreign sellers can only ship for peanuts or for free. Please ignore the postage costs as mentioned in this listing.

The postage costs will be the ACTUAL shipping costs from The Netherlands to the country where the buyer lives, and so PLEASE WAIT UNTIL I HAVE SENT YOU A PAYPAL INVOICE BEFORE PAYING!!!! This saves the both of us a lot of hassle and extra costs!

You might also want to check out http://home.kpn.nl/fjnz4825/ for more Beatles rarities!!

Please note there is NO single with this cover!!