Denga - Ivan III Novgorod, 'Iban'

Ivan III absorbed Novgorod into the Muscovite state in 1478 following a prolonged campaign of political pressure and military threat that ended the city's centuries-old republican independence. Coinage struck in Novgorod's name immediately afterward served a deliberate administrative function — maintaining local monetary familiarity while embedding Moscow's authority into everyday exchange. The spelling variant "Iban" rather than the standard "Ivan" is a known peculiarity of certain Novgorodian dies from this transitional period, likely reflecting local engravers rather than Muscovite ones still cutting the punches.