1 Thaler - Christian William of Brandenburg

Christian William of Brandenburg was appointed Administrator of Magdeburg in 1598 despite lacking the theological qualifications the post nominally required — he was a Calvinist ruling a Lutheran see, a compromise appointment engineered by the Hohenzollern family to extend their influence over the rich ecclesiastical territories along the Elbe. The arrangement was always precarious. He would later back the wrong side in the Thirty Years' War, lose the administratorship, attempt to retake Magdeburg by force, and die in Swedish captivity in 1665.

This 1611 thaler falls early in his tenure, before those disasters. Struck at a moment of relative stability, Davenport CCT#5474 B distinguishes a specific die pairing within what Schramm catalogues as a broader type grouping.