Silver Fleece - Philip the Handsome

Philip the Handsome issued this coin as Duke of Brabant while simultaneously holding the title of King of Castile through his marriage to Joanna — a dynastic convergence that would, within four years of this coin's striking, place a Habsburg on the Spanish throne. The Silver Fleece type takes its name from the Order of the Golden Fleece, of which Philip was sovereign, an institution he used aggressively as a political instrument to bind Burgundian nobles to his cause during a period of sustained tension with France.

Witte 606 is among the documented varieties from his Brabantine coinage, struck at a moment when Philip's monetary policy in the Low Countries was being continuously pressured by currency debasement across neighboring principalities.