2 1/2 Taler - Gebhard Truchseß of Waldburg

Gebhard Truchseß von Waldburg was elected Archbishop of Cologne in 1577, but by 1581 — the year of this striking — his tenure was already precarious. He would convert to Lutheranism two years later and secretly marry Protestant noblewoman Agnes von Mansfeld, triggering the Cologne War of 1583–88, a conflict that drew in Spanish troops, the Dutch, and ultimately cost him the archbishopric entirely. This 2½ Taler was struck while he still held legitimate authority, making it among the final issues of his uncontested rule.

The denomination itself is unusual. Large fractional Talers of this weight were uncommon in Rhenish ecclesiastical coinage, and surviving examples attributable to Noss Co II#96b remain genuinely scarce in the market.