1 Thaler - John I

John the Steadfast issued this thaler during the three years bracketing the Diet of Augsburg — 1530 being the moment his chancellor Brück and theologians including Melanchthon presented the Augsburg Confession to Charles V, effectively codifying Lutheran doctrine against imperial pressure. John had been among the first German princes to openly commit his territory to the Reformation after succeeding his brother Frederick the Wise in 1525. The political stakes of that commitment were reflected in his coinage program, which continued the large silver thaler format the Ernestine Wettins had helped pioneer at the Annaberg and Schneeberg mines decades earlier.

John died in August 1532, just months after the Religious Peace of Nuremberg gave Lutheran estates temporary protection.