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.