New Publication on Hallmarks of Gold Coinage in Serbia and Yugoslavia

Most readers will know or „know“ the hallmarks of Serbia and Yugoslavia from the Austrian ducat restrikes with „1915“ or the Yugoslav ducats from the period from 1931 to 1934. The sword hallmark, often incorrectly catalogued, is better known than all the others. However, other hallmarks are also occasionally available in the trade, when they raise more questions than answers. These often rare and rather mysterious coins have long been calling for more information and a scientifical catalogue…

The newly published book by Aleksandar N. Brzić titled “Hallmarking of gold coinage in Serbia and Yugoslavia 1882–1941” not only offers insights into an area that has so far been unexplored in numismatics, but also a lot of historical and ethnographic background information; all of this, as far as we know, summarized for the first time with combined knowledge from several disciplines, in a book that was written primarily for numismatists, coin collectors and, certainly not least, coin dealers.

Not only Serbia and Yugoslavia (both states changed their form of government and their names between 1882 and 1941; for the sake of simplicity, we will use the two abbreviated but commonly used names here) have hallmarked various gold coins. But only Serbia and Yugoslavia have done so systematically for a long time and on the basis of continuous legislation. The author explains in great detail why this happened and where the great interest of the respective legislators in such an ephemeral area came from, based on historical, ethnographic and numismatic views.

To summarize (very) briefly, in the early 19th century the predominantly rural population of the Balkans had, in general, finally reached a level of prosperity that also allowed for structural surplus in income. The answer to the question of what to do with it was quickly found: buy gold coins, preferably Austrian ducats. They are easy to keep but, if the opportunity arises, can also be shown off as jewelry.

At this time many Balkan states were just emerging and almost none had issued their own coins: the money circulation at this time was a jumble of currencies and denominations. Added to this was the fact that the money and gold trade was completely unregulated; many imitations, that were not always labeled as such, appearing on the market were therefore very dangerous for laypeople. The legislature had to intervene here, and this happened from the middle of the 19th century, formalized by legislation in 1882, with the introduction of a hallmarking system based on the Austrian model.

Despite all the political and economic changes, people still like to buy ducats whenever they can, because crises seem to remain commonplace in the Balkans. In a comedy by the Serbian writer Branislav Nušić (1864-1938), a dramatis persona sums it up beautifully: „What?! The government has fallen?! How come?! It´s not Thursday today…“

In six chapters and six appendices, the author not only provides insights into the historical-geographical background, but also describes the use of coins in traditional Balkan attire. The history of the origins of this phenomenon has also been missing from ethnography so far: its existence was sometimes recorded, but the questions of where and why this happened, were avoided.

This is followed by a very detailed overview of the development of legislation (all provided with detailed original quotes and English translations), including all hallmarks that were used. For the first time, one can safely say “all”, as the previously unexplained and mysterious hallmarks from 1909 have finally been identified and documented. In addition, all hallmarks known on the coins are shown and their variants explained. Each hallmark type is followed by a catalogue of all coins known to the author, both from his own former collection and from those found on the market (with auction details and, where known, provenances).

In the extensive photo section of the book, all coins from the author’s former collection are reproduced and catalogued. Even those that do not necessarily belong to the main category (such as imitations of Austro-Hungarian ducats) but certainly belong to the same area of interest, as they are also very often found in jewelry in the Balkans. The very good quality photos are by the author himself.

The book is, as is not unusual these days, written in English and, at times, quite demanding in its expectations of the reader. We pointed this out to the author, who said that the interested reader today is probably better informed than many authors believe. He also wanted to keep the book relatively manageable. Those who are more interested in the details will certainly find a lot of further reading in the extensive Literature chapter at the end of the book.

The author also specifically asked us to point out to anyone interested the completely incorrect and misleading use of the terms „for Serbia“ and „for Bosnia“: at the time of the hallmarking, neither Serbia nor Bosnia existed as administrative regions, all hallmarks were intended for the whole country and symbolized something different, as is the case with the usual confusion of the „sword hallmark“ with something else. Now there is finally enough information to properly catalog them all!