1 Thaler - Albert II

Albert II of Brandenburg-Ansbach — better known as Albrecht Alcibiades — spent his margraving years in near-constant military adventurism, hiring himself and his troops out to whichever European power would pay, then turning on them when expedient. His thaler issues from this period were minted during the Second Margrave War, a ruinous campaign he launched against Nuremberg and the Franconian bishoprics that ended with his territories devastated, his vassals in revolt, and his eventual exile in 1553. The coins were effectively funding instruments for a war he lost catastrophically.