Alfred Szego (April 9, 1914 – September 1, 1991) was a numismatic historian, who specialized in 14th-17th-century Italian coinage, coinage of ancient

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

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Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

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medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

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, and 19th-century Europe. Alfred Szego

Born in New York to Oscar and Rose Szego, Jewish immigrants who emigrated from

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in 1912. Oldest of four children. Married Augusta, June 1940. Two children, Phillip and Carol. Szego originally became interested in

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

in 1955, while he was a television repairman. One of his customers offered a cache of old coins to settle a repair bill; Szego accepted the coins towards payment after studying the potential values in numismatic reference books. After this, he and his wife began to learn more about

. Together, they created a thriving specialty business, concentrating on coinage of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

, and Medieval

. Szego authored and hand-illustrated "The Coinage of Medieval Austria," which he completed in October 1970. He also reprinted rare reference books on the subject of central European coinage, including "Schlesische Munzenund Medallien" by Hugo Freiherrn von Saurma-Jeltsch (ISBN 978-3-924438-02-9); "Italian Coinage Medieval to Modern;" The Collection of Ercole Gnecchi. In 1969, Szego and his wife, Augusta, were involved in a deadly two car crash in which Augusta sustained minor injuries, but a third passenger was killed; the driver of the other vehicle was arrested. Szego was also a dedicated amateur botanist who invested his energies into performing cross breeding experiments on

American Chestnut The American chestnut (''Castanea dentata'') is a large, fast-growing deciduous tree of the Fagaceae, beech family native to eastern North America. As is true of all species in the genus ''Chestnut, Castanea'', the American chestnut produces Bur ...

in conjunction with the Northern Nut Growers Association, seeking a chestnut-blight resistant subspecies. Due to the slow growing nature of the

, his work set the stage for others, who are now further breeding with some success.

Publications (Works, Bibliography)

* ** Primarily a derivative work, included the primary study of previously unattributed coinage that was issued during the period as well as previously untranslated material. * Szego A (1948) Breeding chestnuts in the New York City area. Annual Report of the Northern Nut Growers Association 39:196-199 * Szego A (1953) Growing American chestnuts and their hybrids under blight conditions. Ann. Rept. No. Nut Growers Assoc. 44:154-156. * Szego A (1964) Experiences with hybrid chestnuts under seashore conditions. 55:29-30. * Szego A (1968) New chestnuts for the northeastern states. Ann. Rept. No. Nut Growers Assoc. 59:87-92. * Szego A (1969) New and little known facts about chestnuts. 60:27-30 * Szego A (1970) Experiences with various chestnut species and their hybrids on eastern Long Island. 61:77-81. * Szego A (1980) Hypovirulence and chestnut breeding. 71:33-35.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szego, Alfred 1991 deaths 1914 births 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers