George the Bearded earned his epithet partly from stubbornness — he was one of the most tenacious Catholic princes in the Empire during the Reformation, personally confronting Luther and refusing to permit Lutheran preaching in his territories until his death in 1539. These groschen were struck in the early 1530s as the Schmalkaldic princes consolidated Protestant power around him, leaving Albertine Saxony an increasingly isolated Catholic enclave.
The Keilitz 119 attribution distinguishes this from closely related Meissen groschen of the same decade by minor die details.
George the Bearded earned his epithet partly from stubbornness — he was one of the most tenacious Catholic princes in the Empire during the Reformation, personally confronting Luther and refusing to permit Lutheran preaching in his territories until his death in 1539. These groschen were struck in the early 1530s as the Schmalkaldic princes consolidated Protestant power around him, leaving Albertine Saxony an increasingly isolated Catholic enclave.
The Keilitz 119 attribution distinguishes this from closely related Meissen groschen of the same decade by minor die details.