1 Groat - John II Brabant castle

John II ruled Brabant from 1294 until his death in 1312, and his groat coinage sits among the earliest large silver issues produced in the Low Countries following the spread of the French gros tournois model northward after Philip IV's monetary reforms. Brabant was well-positioned to adopt the type: its cloth trade with England and the Italian banking houses operating in Bruges created genuine demand for a reliable, heavier silver denomination that the older penny coinage could not satisfy.

Witte 302 is among the more frequently encountered varieties of John II's castle-type groats, though attrition from heavy commercial use means genuinely sharp survivors are uncommon.