1 Groschen 'Helmgroschen' - Frederick IV

Frederick IV of Meissen—later Frederick I, Elector of Saxony—issued the Helmgroschen during a period of acute political friction between the Wettin margraves and the Meissen episcopal authority over mint rights in the region. The type takes its name from the heraldic helmet that distinguishes it from earlier Meissen groschen issues, a deliberate iconographic shift. Krug's classification places this specimen within the second die pairing of the 663 group, a distinction that matters for collectors since the series shows measurable variation in the helmet's rendering across die marriages.