07 December 2021
Aleksandar Brzic : The use of Austrian ducats in jewellery in some regions of the
Balkans ca. 1800 – today
(Uso de ducados Austríacos em jóias em algumas regiões dos Balcãs entre 1800 e hoje)
The AAA has always welcomed members who had expertise in interesting topics relating to archaeology, history or environmental issues to give a talk. Aleks joined the AAA over a year ago and immediately volunteered to give a lecture. He has a doctorate in numismatics and his balkan background gives an interesting angle to this field of science.
Summary:
While the hallmarking of silver and gold jewellery and household objects seems to be quite a known phenomenon among the general public, the fact that some countries hallmarked the gold coinage still raises some eyebrows. Conventionally, a picture of a monarch or some symbols of state on the obverse, and clear denomination and/or date on the reverse of a coin were deemed to be enough of a guarantee to the public that the coin was what it purported to be.
While the hallmarking of silver and gold jewellery and household objects seems to be quite a known phenomenon among the general public, the fact that some countries hallmarked the gold coinage still raises some eyebrows. Conventionally, a picture of a monarch or some symbols of state on the obverse, and clear denomination and/or date on the reverse of a coin were deemed to be enough of a guarantee to the public that the coin was what it purported to be.
But in some regions, the coinage devaluations, incessant changes of ruling power(s) and general unfamiliarity with the coinage changes and valuations caused the populace to wholly refuse some coinage while elevating other to nearly a cult status. Such was the case in the Balkans in the last three centuries. Local coinage was mostly deemed too risky, while the Austrian ducats obtained and retain a cult-like status still today.
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The fact that the Austrian ducats were clearly dated and their use in the local ethnic jewellery gives us a very traceable source for monitoring the economic history of not only families but the whole region of the Balkans, which is no mean feat: wars and the general political turmoil have also produced a very politicised literature where primary sources sometimes play a second or even third role. This propaganda instead of history was, by the way, not only a phenomenon of Communist countries: many other Western historians could not resist the call of ideology either. Nowadays, things are looking up and techniques like the research of the coinage used in jewellery are becoming more and more accessible, thus finally producing a clear(er) picture of this region and its troubled past.
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What is the relevance of all this for Portugal? In many ways, the Balkans and Portugal show a surprising lot of similarities (population structure, social history, long periods of dictatorship etc.) which brought along the idea of starting a similar research here. Although the local costume (traje) is well documented, as far as we could find out, nobody has ever studied the use of coins of any kind in the ethnic jewellery of Portugal. May this lecture be a contribution towards such an effort in the future.
Dr. Aleksandar Brzic (1959) was born in Novi Sad, in what was then Yugoslavia. Since an early age, encouraged by his uncle, he started collecting coins and archaeological artefacts of the region of Vojvodina, roughly an area between the river Danube and the border with Hungary. These were mostly Ottoman coins and small Roman artefacts, both reflecting the past of this region. Notwithstanding the early interest, he studied Physical Chemistry, obtaining the B. Sc. at the University of his home town.
In 1981 he emigrated to Vienna and afterwards Munich, finally living the Netherlands for the last thirty years. His whole working life he was active in the IT, finally retiring to Portugal last year from a position of a global information manager for M&S at a noted Dutch multinational company.
During his whole career, he kept dedicating all his free time and resources to what became a serious infatuation with Numismatics and the Economic History. His numerous publications and congress contributions finally made a Ph.D. in this area possible in 2007. His main interests are the unsolved problems of the modern Numismatics of the Balkans, archival research into the connections between the Vienna mint and various Balkan countries and, lately, the use of Austrian gold coinage in the jewellery of the Balkans. Dr. Brzic publishes his research in German, English and Serbian.
In 1981 he emigrated to Vienna and afterwards Munich, finally living the Netherlands for the last thirty years. His whole working life he was active in the IT, finally retiring to Portugal last year from a position of a global information manager for M&S at a noted Dutch multinational company.
During his whole career, he kept dedicating all his free time and resources to what became a serious infatuation with Numismatics and the Economic History. His numerous publications and congress contributions finally made a Ph.D. in this area possible in 2007. His main interests are the unsolved problems of the modern Numismatics of the Balkans, archival research into the connections between the Vienna mint and various Balkan countries and, lately, the use of Austrian gold coinage in the jewellery of the Balkans. Dr. Brzic publishes his research in German, English and Serbian.