Ducat hoarding in 20th century Serbia

Recently I came across a paper, submitted to the XIV International Economic History Congress (Helsinki 2006) by A.N. Brzic. The author, himself from rural Serbia, describes how widespread was even a few decades ago in Serbia to buy Austrian gold ducats as a way of savings. People had a distrust in the banking system and with reason: even as lately as in the 1990's banks collapsed during the Milosevic-regime, and deposits were lost.

Families hid their treasures in their houses, but on occasion they used the ducats as jewellery:

"...during the spring, summer and particularly after the harvest season, the villages in eastern Serbia were transformed totally every Sunday afternoon. On the vilage common, a band would be playing and proper promenades were held the whole afternoon, accompanied by a lot of dancing (group round dances, "kolo" and even more flirting. Every eligible bride-to-be was accompanied by her mother (always on the left!) and aunt or grandmother, all dressed in finest clothes they possessed and on her, a large spray of ducats was mounted on a sort of necklace ("djerdan") of truly huge proportions: sometimes the support of mother and the aunt was literally needed, as the ducats were up to several kilograms in weight! ... This custom remained very popuar until mid-1970's and, according to the people in the region, ... the tradition is starting to resurface once again."

The author estimates that the amount of gold coins, hoarded by Serbian rural population, could amount to more than 100 tons, and Serbians still keep buying ducats today.

.They can do it, since the Austrian Mint keeps striking the old 1-ducat and 4-ducat coins, using the 1915 dies. The 1-ducat coin is 3,491 g of .986 gold (matching the Venetian ducat, it bears the portrait of Franz Joseph I on its obverse, and the legend FRANC IOS I D G AUSTRIAE IMPERATOR; the legend on the reverse is HUNGAR BOHEM GAL LOD ILL REX A A 1915.

The 4-ducats were large coins of diameter 39.5 mm, weighting 13.964 grams, their design is identical with that of the 1-ducat coins, only bearing a digit "4" on their reverse. Here is an image of the 4-ducat coin: