1 Guldengroschen - Albert IV of Brandenburg

Albert of Brandenburg held simultaneously the Archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Mainz, plus the Bishopric of Halberstadt — a concentration of ecclesiastical office that made him one of the wealthiest and most politically exposed figures in the early Reformation. He was the very prelate to whom Johann Tetzel reported during his indulgence-selling campaigns, the proximate cause of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. That these large silver coins were struck under his authority during the 1537–1542 window places them squarely within the period of his desperate financial maneuvering to retire debts owed to the Fugger banking house.