Zdenka Dukat was born in 1941 in Zagreb; she graduated from the Classics High School in Zagreb, and took a degree in archaeology from the Faculty of Philosophy. After graduating, in 1965, she studied the epigraphic monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Yugoslav Academy, and in 1967 was employed full time as curator in the Numismatics Collection of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. In 1978 she became senior curator, and in 1986 museum adviser. From 1980 to 1984 she was director of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. Her first task in the Numismatic Collection was to review the collection and put it in order, because from 1946 the entire holdings had been in a bank in Praška ulica. The permanent display of the Numismatics Collection of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb was opened in 1978.
She spent most of her time on studying coins of antiquity. As well as studying material from the general area of Zagreb, she studied the whole regions of some sites.
She helped in the study of the ancient numismatics of Ilok Municipal Museum and of Stari Grad on Hvar. She was an active participant in the work of the Croatian Numismatic Association.
She published her works in the Vjesnik arheološkog društva, Vijesti muzealaca i konzervatora, Sinjski zbornik and Numizmatičke vjesti. Some of her papers were published in the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, and some other foreign journals. She is the author of numerous catalogues of exhibitions: Zagreb before Zagreb; Muzeopis; From Invincible Sun to Sun of Justice; Žumberak; Revived Culture.
Zdenka Dukat died in Zagreb on November 11, 2006, in her 66th year.

NB. Data taken from the questionnaire, material taken from the Personnel Archives of the MDC, and from an interview recorded on November 28, 2002.