2 Guldiner - Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg

Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg was one of the most politically entangled churchmen of the Reformation period — a Habsburg loyalist who served as secretary and diplomat to Maximilian I before being installed as Archbishop of Salzburg in 1519. He spent much of his archiepiscopate suppressing Protestant influence in the region, including a violent crackdown on the peasant uprising of 1525 that had driven him temporarily from the city. By 1538 he was in his late seventies and within two years of death.

The 2 Guldiner denomination itself was a prestige issue, struck more for display and large transactions than everyday commerce.