Robert M. Overstreet
Over the years we’ve all grown accustomed to see the appearance every few years of a new Overstreet Price Guide. Just recently the Tenth Edition came out. Like the Ninth Edition, it is printed in a larger format. Some collectors complained when that edition came out that it didn’t conform to the previous smaller size, and looked odd on the shelf with the other editions. While that is certainly true, I find the larger size much easier to manage. Not only are the pictures larger, but the book just handles better. This is important to me, since the number of pages has increased to over twelve hundred, making it a thick and heavy book.
There has been much discussion over the years about the values given to the points as being too high or too low. That just depends on whom you ask. I myself, find it a great reference for relative values and quickly locating a point type. As in the last few editions, the points are split up into regions, not just styles. I like this, since a point style in one region may be called something else in another region. There’s nothing new here in the overall format.
The highlights of this edition are two exceptional articles. At the end of the book is a great article by Duncan Caldwell entitled Collecting Old World Prehistoric Artifacts. This is very in depth, with many pictures and descriptions of the various time periods all the way back to 2.6 million years ago. If you collect anything in this area, this article is worth the price of the book alone.
The cover article is absolutely fantastic. It was written by Dr. Michal Gramly and entitled The Cumberland Tradition and Earliest Americans. This is a MUST READ for anyone who collects. Some of the information is ground breaking, and he presents some radical new theories about the Cumberland Point Style.
Though this book is marketed as a price guide, it is so much more that it is well worth owning. With a $29.95 list price, and many dealers discounting it, you cannot lose purchasing this. Highly recommended.