Denga - Aleksandr I Pattern

The 1810 denga pattern belongs to a sweeping monetary reform effort under Finance Minister Mikhail Speransky, who was pushing Alexander I toward a complete overhaul of Russia's copper coinage system. Several competing designs and weight standards were essayed that year before the reform stalled — Speransky himself fell from imperial favor in 1812, exiled on suspicion of pro-Napoleonic sympathies, and the restructuring lost its most capable advocate. Most pattern pieces from this programme survive in extremely small numbers, having never progressed beyond trial striking at the St. Petersburg mint.