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

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...

. 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' ''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 ot ...

" 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''. For many years, he also served as the North American representative for the

Pobjoy Mint British Pobjoy Mint is a privately held company-sector mint located in Surrey, England, which produces commemorative coins, medal, tokens and bullion. The mint also manufacturers circulating currency for some British Overseas Territories and sove ...

Numismatic Honours

In addition to the

American Numismatic Association The American Numismatic Association (ANA) is an organization founded in 1891 by George Francis Heath. Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, it was formed to advance the knowledge of numismatics (the study of coins) along educational, histori ...

, 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 preservati ...

Royal Numismatic Society The Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) is a learned society and charity based in London, United Kingdom which promotes research into all branches of numismatics. Its patron was Queen Elizabeth II. Membership Foremost collectors and researchers, bo ...

and the

Royal Canadian Numismatic Association The Royal Canadian Numismatic Association was founded in 1950. It is a nonprofit association for coin collectors and other people interested in Canadian numismatics. It has members throughout Canada and in other countries. At times, it also works ...

. He is also a recipient of the Numismatic Literary Guild's coveted Clemy Award, and several awards from the

. 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