2 Thalers - John Frederick

John Frederick the Magnanimous, Elector of Saxony, was among the most committed early supporters of Luther's Reformation — a political stance that would eventually cost him his electorate entirely. These double thalers were struck in the silver-rich Erzgebirge mining districts at a moment when Ernestinian Saxony was at the height of its territorial influence, before the Schmalkaldic War reduced John Frederick to a captive of Charles V and stripped his line of the electoral dignity in 1547.

The Keilitz 243 attribution places this among the earliest double thaler issues from any German state.