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History Of The Awards	Criteria	Certification	Making The Awards
Ordering Awards	Diamond Awards	Digital Sales Award	Searchable Database
Top 100 Albums	Artist Tallies	Top Selling Artists

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The popularity of the Gold® & Platinum® awards has made them valuable collectibles and their manufacturing has evolved into a specialized field. For the past 10 years, in order to curb potential fraud and abuse, the RIAA® has enlisted licensed framers, giving them the exclusive right to prepare awards. An RIAA®-certified title permits a record company to purchase from these licensed frame shops the official RIAA® awards bearing the specialized holographic seal.

The certified title’s record company must first authorize plaque orders before they can be manufactured. Once an order has been approved, the record company works with a licensed framer to determine the design and quantity of the award.

The RIAA® is unable to fully authenticate any existing award, but we can verify whether or not a title is certified; we regularly work with our member companies and outside agencies to ensure that counterfeits do not penetrate the market. Working together with Sotheby's and other auction houses, the RIAA®, in coordination with its anti-piracy division, has been able to identify and pull several unauthorized awards from auction.

The RIAA® asks its members and the general public for assistance in detecting fraudulent awards. Anyone who sees a Gold® or Platinum® award that claims U.S. sales certification, but does not include the RIAA® hologram logo, should contact the RIAA®'s anti-piracy division at 1-800-BAD-BEAT or email badbeat@RIAA®.com.

For information on collecting Gold® and Platinum® awards, see Goldmine's Price Guide to Collectible Record Albums, 3rd Edition.