Real 'Ernestus' - Ernest of Bavaria Masseik

Ernest of Bavaria was appointed Prince-Bishop of Liège in 1581 as part of a broader Wittelsbach strategy to accumulate ecclesiastical territories in the Spanish Netherlands — he simultaneously held the sees of Freising, Hildesheim, and later Cologne. The Masseik attribution on this type locates production at the Maaseik mint, active during a period when Liège's monetary administration was under considerable strain from the religious conflicts convulsing the surrounding Low Countries.

Dengis 980 is specific to the 1582–83 emission, distinguished within the Ernest coinage by subtle die characteristics documented in Dengis's corpus.