The First Album of THE BEATLES released in the United States. NOT A FAKE

$

79

  I've owned this record album since, I believe 1964 or 1965. 
  Introducing... The Beatles is the first studio album released by the English rock band the Beatles in the United States. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the LP came out on 10 January 1964, on Vee-Jay Records, ten days before Capitol's Meet the Beatles! The latter album, however, entered the U.S. album chart one week before the former. Consequently, when Meet The Beatles! peaked at No. 1 for eleven consecutive weeks, Introducing...The Beatles stalled at No. 2 where it remained for nine consecutive weeks. It was the subject of much legal wrangling, but ultimately, Vee-Jay was permitted to sell the album until late 1964, by which time it had sold more than 1.3 million copies. On 24 July 2014 the album was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA.   This is version 1 of the famous album. Less than one week after this was released, Vee-Jay was served with a restraining order stopping further distribution. The rights to "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" (which are on this album-the real first album) were owned by Beechwood Music (Capitol Records) and the songs had not yet been released in the US. Vee-Jay removerd "Love Me Do" and P.S. I Love You" and replaced them with "Ask Me Why" and "Please Please Me" and released the second version on the album. This version is the one that entered the Billboard charts and came it second to Capitol Record's "Meet the Beatles" but the first Beatles album released in the United States is this one!
  This has the hand-etched "63-3403" on the record (see close-up). There is a close up of an apparent "scratch". That was in it when I got the album sometime in the early to mid 1960s. I thought it was bad and was going to return it, but after listening, I could not hear it. I may have been part of Vee-Jay rush to release the album, but doesn't affect the sound.
  Besides the various versions that Vee-Jay records produced, there are many counterfeits. Some of the counterfeits: The record label with: the title of the album and group's name sparated by the center spindle hole, or missing the color green, a jagged line between the red and purple colors, or having off center colors, or with large white brackets and no color band. The album cover with dark brown borders, or the front or back is not glossy, or missing George Harrison's shadow (on the right), not have 1/4" glue overlap on the inside top and bottom, do the letters "H" and "E" have missing ink in upper left of the word "HONEY" There are other variations of fakes. On the record, if the width of the inner trail-off is greater than one inch, if the record doesn't have either "AudioMatrix", "MR" in a circle or "APP" stamped in the trail-off area.
  If the back cover is blank or has ads for other albums, they may not be fakes. Vee-Jay used 3 different backs in the initial release. Check some of the other indications.