1 Albus - Charles

Charles I of Hesse-Cassel ruled during a period of chronic fiscal strain, having inherited debts from the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession. The albus was a traditional Rhenish small silver denomination with roots in the 14th century — by the 1720s it was an archaic unit kept alive largely by regional commercial habit rather than any rational monetary planning. Hesse-Cassel continued striking it while simultaneously leasing troops to foreign powers, a practice that would become the landgraviate's defining financial strategy throughout the 18th century.