Project Description
The Many Faces of Beatles Monthly No 1
The star of the show for most collectors, the first issue and for certain one of the scarcest. Around 80,000 (some sources say 40,000) of these were printed back in August 1963 and by early 1964 they were out of stock, with no plans to reprint.
As a consequence, it is the single most valuable issue and copies are quickly snapped up when they appear.
However, since 1976 it has been reprinted a few times and reprints are more plentiful than originals. The basic content remains unchanged so how will you tell if you’re investing in a 1963 original or a later copy? Here I’ll give you the clues you need to avoid an expensive mistake.
1963 Original
This first image (left) is of an original, August 1963 print of Issue 1. At first glance, all subsequent printings look more or less the same but there are tell-tale signs that will enable you to spot a reprint. I do not use the word “fake”; the reprints are all “official” and were not printed to deceive, but to be faithful representations of the original. All of the content is essentially identical.
Reprint 1 (1976)
The Beatles Monthly series was first reprinted in 1976, when Beat Publications commenced publication of the Beatles Book Appreciation Society Magazine, which included a “collectors copy” of each of the 77 books. The image (left) is the first of these reprints. The first thing to note is the shading in the photo background which has a grey tone. Compare this with the original (above), where the background is very pale, almost the same shade as the “Beatles” lettering on the page header.
With the darker shade on the photo, a white line is often visible between the photo and the purple header, another easy sign that it is a reprint.
The third clue is the black lettering – “AUGUST” should be quite separate from the white “S” of Beatles, here they are almost touching. It is very rare that this would be seen on a 1960s print (but not impossible, see separate page VARIATIONS, ERRORS AND MISPRINTS).
Reprint 2 (1977)
The image (left) is of the second reprint which appeared a year or so after the first, following a change of printers and some changes to the content of the Appreciation mag. The background of the photo now better matches the original although the photo lacks tone, and there are changes to the black print on the header. The word “MONTHLY” is in a taller typeface and it touches the “B” of Beatles. A second sign that marks this as a reprint is inside, above the editorial on page 3. There should be a line across the page below “World Copyright Reserved”. If this line is missing, the book is a reprint.
Reprint 3 (1983)
In the early 1980s, the “Cine Club” of Japan reprinted many issues of the Beatles Monthly. These were not for distribution outside Japan, but they do show up from time to time.
If you look at the purple footer on the front cover (left), there is no white dot in the centre, always present on U.K. originals.
Secondly, look how much of Paul’s cuff is cropped on the Japanese book.
Thirdly, the typeface of “1963” is wrong; compare it with a U.K. book and note how the tails of the 9 and 6 curl round on the Japanese book (right).
Reprint 4 (1984)
In 1984, all 77 issues of the Beatles Monthly were reprinted in a commemorative box set in Japan (see more information in the Overseas section of this site).
This print is unlikely to appear separated from the set, however there are a couple of differences to note. Firstly, pictured left, the photo is cropped at the bottom, where there is less of Paul’s cuff in the photo. Secondly (right photo), the printing of “BOOK” on the back is in a bolder typeface than the original 1963 issue.
