1 Goldgulden - Christian William of Brandenburg

Christian William of Brandenburg was appointed Archbishop of Magdeburg in 1598 despite being Lutheran — a provocative arrangement even by the standards of post-Reformation Germany, where ecclesiastical territories frequently changed confessional hands. His administration grew increasingly erratic, and his decision to ally with the Protestant Union during the Thirty Years' War led directly to his deposition by the Emperor in 1628. These gulden were struck across the final years of his legitimate rule, before imperial forces removed him from power entirely.

Magdeburg itself would suffer one of the war's defining atrocities in 1631, when imperial troops sacked and largely burned the city.