(sold for $441.0)

1495, Brandenburg-Franconia, Albert III. Scarce Gold Gulden Coin. NGC AU+

Mint Place: Schwabach Mint Period: 1486-1495  Denomination: Gold Gulden (Goldgulden) Mint Official: Hans Schmuttermaier (warden) Reference: Friedberg 304, KM-MB7 var. ($1750 in XF!) . Rare! Condition: Certified and graded by NGC as AU (Details: edge filing!) Diameter: 23mm Weight: 3.32gm Material: Gold!

Obverse: St. John standing facing, head lowered right, holding Gospel book surmounted by Agnus Dei (lamb of God) standing left, head right. Privy mark (dog) between legs below. Legend: ALBT : MARCH - BRAND : ELTO Reverse: Floriated cross with four shields with arms of Brandenburg, Pommerania, Margraviate and Hohenzollern. Legend: + mOnE' °° nOVA °° AVR °° SWOBACh ' °°

Albert III (German: Albrecht III.) (9 November 1414 – 11 March 1486) was Elector of Brandenburg from 1471 until his death, the third from the House of Hohenzollern. A member of the Order of the Swan, he received the cognomen Achilles because of his knightly qualities and virtues. He also ruled in the Franconian principalities of Ansbach from 1440 and Kulmbach from 1464 (as Albrecht I).

Albert was born at the Brandenburg residence of Tangermünde as the third son of the Nuremberg burgrave Frederick I and his wife, the Wittelsbach princess Elisabeth of Bavaria-Landshut. His father served as governor in Brandenburg; a few months after Albert's birth, he was enfeoffed with the electorate at the Council of Constance by the Luxembourg emperor Sigismund.

After passing some time at the court of Emperor Sigismund, Albert took part in the Hussite Wars, and afterwards distinguished himself whilst assisting Sigismund's successor, the Habsburg king Albert II of Germany, against the Hussites and their Polish allies. In 1435, he and is eldest brother John went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

On the division of territory which followed his father's death in 1440, Albert received the Principality of Ansbach, while John took over the rule as Brandenburg elector. Although Albert's resources were meager, he soon took a leading place among the German princes and was especially prominent in resisting the attempts of the towns to obtain self-government.

Nevertheless, Albert's plans to re-unite the former Duchy of Franconia under his rule failed: in 1443, he formed a league directed mainly against the Imperial City of Nuremberg, over which his late father had formerly exercised the rights of burgrave. It was not until 1448, however, that he found a pretext for attack. After initial military successes in the First Margrave War, he was defeated at the Battle of Pillenreuther Weiher, resulting in the Treaty of Bamberg (22 June 1450), which forced Albert to return all of the conquered territory and to recognize the independence of Nuremberg and its associated towns.

Albert supported the Habsburg emperor Frederick III in his struggle with the princes who desired reforms in the Holy Roman Empire, and in return for this loyalty received many marks of favour from Frederick, including extensive judicial rights which aroused considerable irritation among neighbouring rulers.

In 1457, Albert arranged a marriage between his eldest son John, and Margaret, daughter of William III, Landgrave of Thuringia, who inherited the claims upon Hungary and Bohemia of her mother, a granddaughter of Emperor Sigismund. The attempt to secure these thrones for the Hohenzollerns through this marriage failed, and a similar fate befell Albert's efforts to revive in his own favour the disused title of duke of Franconia.

The sharp dissensions which existed among the princes over the question of reform culminated in the Bavarian War from 1459 to 1463, when Albert was confronted with a league under the leadership of Elector Palatine Frederick I and his Wittelsbach cousin Duke Louis IX of Bavaria-Landshut. Though defeated in the struggle, Albert continued fighting against Prince-bishop Rudolf II of Würzburg and even forged an alliance with his former enemy, the Bohemian king George of Poděbrady, a step which caused Pope Paul II to place him under the ban.

Albert permanently resided at Ansbach from 1460; he also inherited the Principality of Kulmbach upon the death of his brother John in 1464.

In 1471, Albert became Elector of Brandenburg, owing to the abdication of his remaining brother, Elector Frederick II, the year before. Now sole ruler over the entire Hohenzollern estates, he was soon actively engaged in their administration. By the 1472 Treaty of Prenzlau he ended the War of the Succession of Stettin, bringing the Duchy of Pomerania also under his supremacy.

Having established his right to levy a tonnage on wines in the mark, he issued in February 1473 the Dispositio Achillea, which decreed that the Margraviate of Brandenburg should descend in its entirety to the eldest son, while the younger sons should receive the Franconian possessions of the family. After treating in vain for a marriage between one of his sons and Princess Mary of Burgundy, daughter and heiress of Duke Charles the Bold, Albert handed over the government of Brandenburg to his eldest son John Cicero, and returned to his Franconian possessions.

Albert's main attention afterwards was claimed by the business of the empire. Seriously ill, he took part in the imperial election of 1486 which selected Maximilian of Habsburg as King of the Romans at Frankfurt Cathedral. A few weeks later, in March, Albert died while still staying in Frankfurt; he was buried in the Heilsbronn Abbey church near Ansbach. He left a considerable amount of treasure.