[78-L] RCA Special purpose records

[neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com]

I've never seen these before, just acquired a few of them.

It is a 12" vinyl 78 rpm. It appears identical to a regular commercial 
78, other than being made of the lighter and flexible material. The 
label is the same except that it says "special purpose record" jut above 
the center hole.

So what was the special purpose? Is there any difference in these and a 
plain ol' 78 shellac?

I have Chopin's Barcarolle played by Artur Rubinstein on 12-0378
and Bernstein plays Ravel Piano Concerto in G on DM 1209. The usual run 
out info looks like any other record - matrix & catalog. There's also a 
5-pointed star at about 3 pm reference the label (on the Bernstein. 
Iturbi doesn't follow the pattern and has no matrix info in the run out).

Iturbi is 12-0242, a coupla Tchaikovsky selections.

So what am I looking at?

joe salerno