Krause Publications is an American publisher of hobby magazines and books. The company was started by Chester L. Krause (1923–2016) in 1952 and published Numismatic News.[1]
In the coin collecting community the company is best known for its Standard Catalog of World Coins, a series of coin catalogs commonly referred to as Krause-Mishler catalogs or simply Krause catalogs; they provide information, pricing, and Krause-Mishler (KM) numbers[2] referring to coin rarity and value. Krause-Mishler (named for Krause and longtime employee Clifford Mishler) numbers are the most common way of assigning values to coins. The first edition was published in 1972.[3] In addition, they established the Coin of the Year Award, first issued in 1984, for excellence in coinage design.[4]
In 1997, Krause acquired the non-automotive book titles of the Chilton Company.[6] In June 2002 Krause was acquired by F+W (back then F&W Publications).[7] At that time, Krause Publications was publishing 46 periodicals and had nearly 750 books in print.[8] Krause Publications was continued by F+W as an imprint.
In June 2019, the assets of F+W were sold through bankruptcy auctions. Penguin Random House acquired the book publishing assets and Krause brand.[9] The magazines were divided among different entities,[10] with Numismatic News, for example, being acquired by Active Interest Media.[11] The 2019 edition of the Standard Catalog of World Coins included XX and XXI century editions. Penguin published the 2020 edition of the XX Century Standard Catalog of World Coins, but the XXI century edition was not released.
^McMorrow-Hernandez, Joshua (December 26, 2016). "The Coin Analyst: 2016: Year in Review". CoinWeek. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019. Krause and his longtime colleague Clifford Mishler instituted the use of the now widely used Krause-Mishler numbers, shorthanded as KM numbers, to standardize the cataloging of coin issues.
^Kampmann, Ursula (December 10, 2015). "Albert Pick (1922–2015)". CoinsWeekly. Translated by Backe, Annika. MünzenWoche GmbH. Archived from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved September 8, 2019.