The County of Berg occupied a strategically awkward position in the lower Rhine corridor during the 1360s–70s, caught between the ambitions of the Archbishop of Cologne and the expanding influence of the Duchy of Jülich. William II minted aggressively during this period, and his gros tournois issues were deliberate imitations of the French royal type — a calculated monetary signal that circulated credibly in trans-Rhine trade networks precisely because the prototype was trusted across western Europe.
De Mey Gros 222 is among the better-documented of the Berg gros series, though die variation within William II's reign remains incompletely catalogued.
The County of Berg occupied a strategically awkward position in the lower Rhine corridor during the 1360s–70s, caught between the ambitions of the Archbishop of Cologne and the expanding influence of the Duchy of Jülich. William II minted aggressively during this period, and his gros tournois issues were deliberate imitations of the French royal type — a calculated monetary signal that circulated credibly in trans-Rhine trade networks precisely because the prototype was trusted across western Europe.
De Mey Gros 222 is among the better-documented of the Berg gros series, though die variation within William II's reign remains incompletely catalogued.