Alfred Szego, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAlfred Szego
Austrian historian
Date of Birth: 09-Apr-1914
Place of Birth: New York, United States
Date of Death: 01-Sep-1991
Profession: historian
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aries 
About Alfred Szego
- Alfred Szego (April 9, 1914 – September 1, 1991) was a numismatic historian, who specialized in 14th-17th-century Italian coinage, coinage of ancient Rome, Greece, Carthage, Judea, Spain, medieval Austria, and 19th-century Europe.
- Author of The Coinage of Medieval Austria 1156-1521. Born in New York to Oscar and Rose Szego, Jewish immigrants who emigrated from Budapest in 1912.
- Oldest of four children.
- Married Augusta, June 1940.
- Two children, Phillip and Carol. Szego originally became interested in numismatics in 1957.
- A self-taught television repairman, one of his customers was unable to pay his bill for repair services, and offered Szego a grouping of 19-20th-century European coins.
- Eager to collect on a debt, Szego accepted the coins towards payment – and then he and his wife began to learn more about numismatics.
- Together, they created a thriving specialty business, concentrating on coinage of Ancient Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, and Medieval Austria.
- As attribution guides were largely unavailable, their increasing expertise was in high demand.
- Published The Coinage of Medieval Austria, 1156-1521; (Paperback – 1970, 56pp hand-illustrated).
- Primarily a derivative work, included primary study of previously unattributed coinage that was issued during this period.
- Also presented previously untranslated materials. Szego was also a dedicated amateur botanist who invested his energies into performing cross breeding experiments on American Chestnut in conjunction with the Northern Nut Growers Association, seeking a chestnut-blight resistant subspecies.
- Due to the slow growing nature of the American Chestnut, his work set the stage for others, who are now further breeding with some success.
- His results of crossbreeding experiments on file with the Northern Nutgrowers Association. Publications: Szego A (1970) The Coinage of Medieval Austria 1156-1521. 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.
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