It has been a long time since any posting got as much response as the Munsell Color Charts one. They are near and dear to my heart, so want to get my two-cents worth in as well. As we all know by now there are several Munsell color charts. The ones for soils, by the way, can be kept clean by laminating them in plastic or, if that is too permanent, put them in a zip-lock bag or use one of those vacuum food sealers that are advertised on TV. Then there are the glossy and matte chips for use with just about anything else. Working a lot with glass beads, I find that knowing the exact Munsell value range for a specific bead variety lets me get a lot better grasp on what is in a specific collection when it comes to inter-site comparisons. There have been several instances where I thought I had good matches on paper with people using terms like "deep blue," "dark blue" and so on. When I finally got to see the beads up close & personal, there were actually No matches at all! Munsell is the preferred scientific community's color standard. It is also very expensive. Consequently I have sought an inexpensive substitute for some time and there are two that I would recommend because they display a wide range of colors and are also widely available: "The Pantone Textile Color Guide -- Paper Edition" with 1,701 colors arranged in a fan format. Costs $99 the last I heard from Pantone, Inc., 55 Knickerbocker Rd., Moonachie, NJ 07074-9988. tel: 201-935-5500. They also have offices in England and Hong Kong. There are several other Pantone fans and color charts as well but this is the ideal one. At some point I will sit down and figure out Munsell equivalents for these so the two systems may be tied together. The other possibility is the "Pantone Book of Color" by Leatrice Eiseman and Lawrence Herbert; publ. by Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1990. It is only about $30 but is in a book format which is not easy to use when trying to figure out exactly what color you have. The back of the title page states: "This book is not intended for use in professional technical color specification," and states that for that you should get the textile fan. However, for archaeological/material culture research purposes it will suffice. It is certainly a far sight better than a box of Crayons! [log in to unmask] Parks Canada, Material Culture Research