Alfred Szego

Who was Alfred Szego?

Alfred Szego 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 from Budapest c 1910. 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;. Primarily a derivative work, included primary study of previously unattributed coinage that was issued during this period.