1 Spitzgroschen - Ernest, William III, and Albert Zwickau

The Spitzgroschen — named for the pointed (spitz) lower terminals of the shield on the die — was a distinctly Saxon denomination that emerged in the mid-fifteenth century as the region's silver mining output from the Erzgebirge expanded. This 1478 piece is a joint issue of the Ernestine-Albertine co-rulers before the 1485 Leipzig Partition permanently divided the Wettin dynasty into two separate lines. Ernest, William III, and Albert governed Saxony under the traditional Wettin practice of Gesamthaus co-rulership, a dynastic arrangement that grew increasingly unwieldy and ultimately unsustainable.

The Zwickau mint attribution ties this coin to one of Saxony's important secondary striking facilities during this period.