“The use of Austrian ducats in jewelry in some regions of the Balkans since 1800 until today” (“The use of Austrian ducats in jewelery in some regions of the Balkans from c1800 to today”) is the title of the lecture, in English, that Aleksandar Brzic, will be held on the 7th of December, in two places in the Algarve: at the Museu do Traje, in São Bras de Alportel (14:30), and at the Convento de São José, in Lagoa (18:00).
This is one more monthly lecture promoted by AAA – Archaeological Association of the Algarve.
Aleksandar Brzic, who became a member of the AAA a year ago, has a doctorate in numismatics and, according to the association, "his Balkan origins give an interesting angle to this branch of science."
What is the relevance of all this for Portugal? “In many respects, the Balkans and Portugal have a series of surprising similarities (population structure, social history, long periods of dictatorship, etc.) that brought up the idea of starting a similar investigation here. Although local attire is well documented, as far as we can see, no one has ever studied the use of coins of any kind in ethnic jewelery in Portugal. May this lecture be a contribution to this effort in the future», explains the speaker.
Aleksandar Brzic (1959) was born in Novi Sad, then Yugoslavia. At a very young age, encouraged by his uncle, he began collecting coins and archaeological artifacts from the Vojvodina region, an area between the Danube River and the Hungarian border. They were mainly Ottoman coins and small Roman artifacts, both reflecting the region's past.
Despite the initial interest, he studied Physics-Chemistry, obtaining the B.Sc. at the University of his hometown.
In 1981, he emigrated to Vienna and then Munich, finally living in the Netherlands for the past thirty years.
Throughout his professional life, he has been active in the IT field, having ended his career as a global information manager for M&S in a renowned Dutch multinational company. He retired and moved to Portugal last year.
Throughout his career, Aleksandar Brzic devoted his free time and resources to what became a serious passion for Numismatics and Economic History. He ended up doing a PhD in this area in 2007.
His main interests are the unresolved problems of modern Balkan numismatics, archival research on connections between the Vienna mint and various Balkan countries, and recently the use of Austrian gold coins in Balkan jewelry. It publishes its investigations in German, English and Serbian.
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