1/4 Thaler - Christian William of Brandenburg

Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg held the Archbishopric of Magdeburg as an administrator — a Protestant in a Catholic see, confirmed by the chapter but never recognized by Rome. His tenure became catastrophic during the Thirty Years' War: Imperial forces besieged and sacked Magdeburg in May 1631 in what became one of the worst atrocities of the entire conflict, killing perhaps 20,000 civilians. This 1623 piece was struck eight years before that destruction, when the city still functioned as a mint and Christian Wilhelm still held tenuous authority over it.