1 Mattier - Martin

The counts of Regenstein, a minor Harz region dynasty whose territorial ambitions consistently outran their means, issued these small silver pieces during a period of acute financial strain in the 1590s. The county was by then deeply mortgaged and effectively a spent force — it would pass permanently to Brandenburg-Prussia within a generation. That desperation likely explains why Regenstein was still striking fractional currency at all: cash was short, local coinage filled gaps that larger powers had no incentive to address.

The Mattier denomination itself was peculiar to the Harz and surrounding regions, a ghost of earlier bracteate monetary culture persisting into an era that had largely moved on.