1 Groschen - Albert IV of Brandenburg Breitgroschen

Albert IV of Brandenburg — better known as Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach or Cardinal Albert — simultaneously held the sees of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Mainz by the 1510s, a concentration of ecclesiastical power achieved through aggressive papal dispensation and substantial Fugger banking loans. It was precisely this debt that drove him to authorize an aggressive indulgence campaign in his territories, the proceeds of which were to be split with Rome. That campaign, run partly by Johann Tetzel through Magdeburg, directly provoked Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517.

These groschen were struck against that exact backdrop of financial strain.