This thaler was struck during a brief but politically awkward co-regency in Saxony, when three brothers — Christian II as Elector, and his younger brothers John George I and August — jointly administered the electorate following the death of their father Christian I in 1591. The arrangement was formalized under the guardianship of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Saxe-Weimar until Christian II came of age, and the three-portrait format on these thalers was both a constitutional statement and a dynastic advertisement. August died in 1615 without ever holding the electorate himself.
This thaler was struck during a brief but politically awkward co-regency in Saxony, when three brothers — Christian II as Elector, and his younger brothers John George I and August — jointly administered the electorate following the death of their father Christian I in 1591. The arrangement was formalized under the guardianship of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Saxe-Weimar until Christian II came of age, and the three-portrait format on these thalers was both a constitutional statement and a dynastic advertisement. August died in 1615 without ever holding the electorate himself.