Thaler - Albert of Brandenburg

Albert of Brandenburg held an almost comically overextended portfolio of ecclesiastical appointments by 1527 — simultaneously Archbishop of Mainz, Archbishop of Magdeburg, and Bishop of Halberstadt — making him one of the most powerful and indebted churchmen in the empire. His thaler issues were partly a practical response to the spread of large-denomination silver coinage following the Joachimsthaler, and partly a tool of fiscal management for a prince-bishop perpetually short of cash. He had borrowed heavily from the Fuggers to pay Rome for his appointments, a debt whose interest payments reportedly never fully cleared during his lifetime.

The Halberstadt issues of this period are scarce relative to his Mainz and Magdeburg thalers, reflecting the diocese's comparatively modest mint output.