1/4 Thaler - Maximilian III lion and helmet swapped

The Teutonic Order's Prussian administration lost direct control of its eastern territories to Polish suzerainty after the 1525 secularization under Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, leaving the Order's remaining monetary authority concentrated in the Mergentheim-based German mastership. By 1615 that jurisdiction was under Maximilian III of Austria, who had held the Grand Mastership since 1585. Coins from this administration are scarce precisely because the Order's economic base had contracted so sharply from its medieval peak.

The "lion and helmet swapped" designation refers to a known die error in which the positional relationship of two heraldic elements was reversed from the intended arrangement — a mint-floor mistake rather than an intentional variant.