1 Guldengroschen - Frederick III

The Saxon Guldengroschen emerged from the extraordinary silver wealth of the Erzgebirge mines, which gave the Ernestinian Wettins both the raw material and the political motivation to issue large-denomination silver coins rivaling the Rhenish gold guilder in value. Frederick III — Frederick the Wise — had died in May 1525, but this 1522 issue falls squarely within his tenure as Elector, a period during which he notably sheltered Martin Luther at the Wartburg following the Diet of Worms. The Erzgebirge output underpinned Saxon financial independence at precisely the moment that independence was most politically consequential.