"Samples of rare ermine traded illegally," covering note mentioned (10)

I believe the answer is:

referenced

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'samples of rare ermine traded illegally covering' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'note mentioned' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'note' could be 'reference' (reference is a kind of note) and 'reference' is found within the answer.
A single letter 'd' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

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