RSD Numbering

In 2018, five of Taylor's rarest and eventually most-sought-after vinyl releases were released. The first three in April; the last two were released on November 23, 2018.

These final two were reissues of her self-written Speak Now and Grammy-nominated Red, pressed on Smoke colored and Crystal Clear vinyl, respectively.

Source: the official Facebook page for Record Store Day, posted November 6, 2018

Official promotional material was posted to the RSD Black Friday site, with listings for the two releases created as well.

The listing for Speak Now, promoted as a special edition on numbered, smoke-colored double vinyl.
The listing for Red, promoted as a special edition of Taylor Swift's Red on numbered, crystal-clear double vinyl.

The two most interesting information to take away from these release are found in the details section of the listings:

Event: BLACK FRIDAY 2018

Release Date: 11/23/2018

Label: Big Machine

Quantity: 4000

Release type: 'RSD First' Release

First, both releases are classified as a 'RSD First' Release, which means that while it is seemingly only available at indie record stores on November 23, 2018, these are planned to be released on wider scale at a later date. The official RSD definition explains it as follows:

RSD FIRST: These titles are found first at indie record stores but may be released to other retailers or webstores at some point in the future.

Secondly, both releases are promoted as being limited to 4,000 copies. This piece of information conflicts with what we know now, for a variety of reasons.

Exhibit A: Most, if not all, known copies of Speak Now (on Smoke colored vinyl) and Red (on Crystal Clear vinyl) are numbered through 7,000.

63 / 7000

1881 / 7000

6145 / 7000

6387 / 7000

It's worth noting that the first two pictures, #63 and #1881 (taken by yours truly), are from releases with the US catalog number, BMRTS0300A. The last two pictures, #6145 and #6387 are from releases with the European catalog number, 00843930034666.

Releases with the thicker gold sharpie handwriting are known as US numbered versions and the releases with the thinner sharpie are known as the European numbered versions.

1,153 / 7,000

3,068 / 7,000

5412 / 7000

6701 / 7000

The first two pictures, #1,153 and #3,068 are from releases with the US catalog number, BMRTS0400A. The last two pictures, #5412 and #6701 are from releases with the European catalog number, 00843930034673.

Seen here are two different forms of handwriting that differs between the releases, evident by the thousands-separator being present in the US releases but missing in the European releases.

Releases with the thousand separator are known as US releases, and the ones without the separator are known as the European releases.

With what we know so far, is that despite being promoted as limited to 4000 copies, at least 7000 copies of each album was numbered to be released. So, instead of reading the promoted amount as an overall amount, our assumption can be that 4000 copies were allocated to the US and only the albums numbered 1-4000/7000 were released in the US.

Exhibit B: Why 1-4000/7000 aren't the only US releases.

Despite sporting the 1) catalog number specific to US versions of the RSD releases and 2) numbering handwriting specific to the US releases, some US releases are numbered past 4,000.

Take this example of a Speak Now RSD release, numbered with the same handwriting as the rest of the US releases, except numbered past the expected 4,000 that was initially announced for the Black Friday release.

As a result, it is clear that in addition to no longer being limited to 4,000 worldwide, and that more than 4,000 of the eventual 7,000 copies were allocated to the United States.

This suggests that there are either:

duplicate numbers (as the US and EU variants were visibly hand-numbered by different people), or
there are less EU variants than we originally thought there was!

We don't have any known duplicate numbers–not that people actively share their numbers enough to keep track of–so the assumption to date is that there are just less EU copies. So now, the question is:

Just actually how many copies were allocated to the US, and where does the hand-numbering transition over from one version to the other?

Exhibit C: Why 4,750 copies of both Speak Now and Red were allocated to the US for Record Store Black Friday.

Why 4750 and not 5000 or a prettier number?

Numbering to a X750 number actually isn't new for Taylor's RSD releases. Previously, in April 2018, her self-titled album Taylor Swift, Fearless (Platinum Edition), and 1989 were hand-numbered to 3,750 despite being promoted as limited to 2500 on promotional material.

4680 / 7000, the highest* known Speak Now RSD with the US catalog number & handwriting.

48XX / 7000, the lowest known Speak Now RSD with the European catalog number & handwriting.

4,182 / 7,000, the highest** known Red RSD with the US catalog number & handwriting.

4830 / 7000, the lowest known Red RSD with the European catalog number & handwriting.

*a collector has alleged that their US release is numbered #4699. There is no further information regarding this copy.
**a copy of the Red US release with #4598 was allegedly seen on a resale site in 2021. There is no further information regarding this copy.

Therefore, the most likely numbering system for the Speak Now RSD and the Red RSD is:

Copies numbered 1-4,750/7,000 are US copies, and
Copies numbered 4751-7000/7000 are EU copies.

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