1/4 Guldengroschen - Frederick III

Frederick III of Saxony — "the Wise" — was the elector who famously refused to hand Martin Luther over to Rome in 1521, but this coin predates that confrontation by over a decade. It belongs instead to an earlier monetary episode: the Ernestinian line's participation in the guldengroschen tradition pioneered in the Tyrol, as Saxon silver from the Erzgebirge mines began flooding into circulation and demanding larger denominational vehicles than the existing coinage could provide. The Annaberg and Schneeberg strikes of this period are notoriously difficult to attribute precisely, and the 1507–1510 span reflects genuine uncertainty in the literature rather than a clean production window.