Russell Alphonse Rulau (September 21, 1926 – November 12, 2012) was an American

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...

. He was involved in coin collecting for over 60 years. From his earliest days as a casual collector, Rulau contributed to numismatics as a writer, editor and club organizer. His interest in world coins led him to create the "Coin of the Year" award. The award is presented annually by

Krause Publications Krause Publications is an American publisher of hobby magazines and books. The company was started by Chester L. Krause (19232016) in 1952 and published '' Numismatic News''. In the coin collecting community the company is best known for its ...

' ''World Coin News''. Rulau coined the term "

exonumia Exonumia are numismatic items (such as tokens, medals, or scrip) other than coins and paper money. This includes "Good For" tokens, badges, counterstamped coins, elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, wooden nickels and o ...

" in 1960.

Literary career

While working for Amos Press, Rulau edited publications such as ''

Coin World ''Coin World'' is an American numismatic magazine, with weekly and monthly issues. It is among the world’s most popular non-academic publications for coin collectors and is covering the entire numismatic field, including coins, paper money, me ...

'' and ''Numismatic Scrapbook''. He was also responsible for creating ''World Coins Magazine''. He later worked for Krause Publications, and contributed to the editing of the ''World Coin News'' and ''Bank Note Reporter''. He has also written several numismatic books, including ''How to Order Foreign Coins'', ''Modern World Mint Marks'', ''World Mint Marks'', ''Hard Times Tokens'', ''Early American Tokens'', ''U.S. Merchant Tokens 1845-1860'', ''U.S. Trade Tokens 1866-1889'', ''Tokens of the Gay Nineties'' and ''Latin American Tokens''. From 1985-88, he also served as the North American representative for the Pobjoy Mint.

Numismatic honors

In addition to the American Numismatic Association, Rulau was a member of various other numismatic groups. These include the

American Numismatic Society The American Numismatic Society (ANS) is a New York City-based organization dedicated to the study of coins, money, medals, tokens, and related objects. Founded in 1858, it is the only American museum devoted exclusively to their preservation ...

, Royal Numismatic Society, the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association. He was a founding member of the Token and Medal Society in 1960. He is also a recipient of the Numismatic Literary Guild's coveted Clemy Award, and several awards from the American Numismatic Association. These awards include the Glenn Smedley Memorial Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and Medal of Merit.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rulau, Russell 1926 births American non-fiction writers American numismatists 2012 deaths Bay View High School alumni Writers from Milwaukee United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army personnel of the Korean War United States Air Force reservists