1/2 Noble - Philip the Handsome, Regency

Philip the Handsome was just eight years old in 1488, which meant real authority rested with the Regency Council operating in his name following the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482. That year was also the height of the crisis in which Maximilian of Habsburg — Philip's father and Mary's widower — was actually captured and imprisoned by the citizens of Bruges, forcing him to sign the Treaty of Senlis under duress. Coinage struck under the Regency carried Philip's name as a deliberate assertion of dynastic continuity during a period of acute political instability in the Low Countries.

The fraction's high gold fineness of .952 aligns with the standards inherited from Burgundian monetary ordinances rather than any local Holland initiative.