What is a “counterfeit”?
Other than the above “pirate” records, which contain official material without attempting to look like a genuine thing, counterfeits are veritable “fakes” of rare legitimate releases that mostly feature fiendishly close (though never perfect) replicas of the original cover and label design, and – just like with valuable art – often can only be detected by the trained eye of an expert. Throughout this site, we have given indications of items that are either known or just suspected to have been duplicated in this thoroughly criminal manner, and also provided advisory on how to tell a counterfeit from an original where possible.
