2 Mites - Philip the Good

Philip the Good's mite issues from this period were produced under the monetary ordinance of 1454, which attempted to rationalize coinage across his Burgundian territories by fixing billon fineness at levels the mints could actually sustain. The Brabant mint at Antwerp struck these in volume — Antwerp was by the 1460s the commercial hub of northern Europe, and small billon fractions circulated intensely in market transactions that silver coin was too valuable to handle.

The .020 fineness is barely silver at all, closer to copper with a wash, and contemporary merchants complained routinely about the debasement of petty coinage throughout Philip's later reign.