4 Mites - Philip the Handsome, Regency

Philip the Handsome was only eleven years old in 1489, with the Habsburgs managing Brabant through a regency council following the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482. The duchy's coinage during this period navigated competing pressures from Maximilian I — Philip's father and Holy Roman Emperor-in-waiting — whose attempts to centralize monetary policy in the Low Countries met sustained resistance from the Brabantine estates.

The billon alloy reflects monetary stress common across the Burgundian Netherlands in the 1480s, a decade of near-continuous warfare and fiscal strain.