create tied hash with 1 element $hash{'foo'} = 'bar' Accessing the element increases access count: foo => bar:1 foo => bar:2 foo => bar:3 foo => bar:4 foo => bar:5 Create new %hash1 here and reset counter: foo => bar:1 foo => bar:2 foo => bar:3 foo => bar:4 Accessing %hash again shows last count for %hash1 Global counter is only reset on new tie / object creation foo => bar:5 Note that this counter is common for all hash elements: next => :6