1 Thaler

Erfurt occupied an unusual constitutional position in the early seventeenth century — nominally under the Archbishop of Mainz yet fiercely protective of its municipal autonomy, a tension that flared repeatedly into open conflict. This thaler was struck during the centenary of the Reformation, which Erfurt commemorated with particular intensity given the city's direct connection to Luther, who had studied and been ordained at the Augustinian monastery there. The centenary issues of 1617–1618 were produced across dozens of German cities, but Erfurt's claim to Luther's biography gave its emission a specific local weight that others lacked.