Denga - Ivan IV

Ivan IV — Ivan the Terrible — centralized coin production aggressively after his 1547 coronation as Tsar, suppressing the regional minting that had plagued earlier Muscovite coinage with inconsistent weight and rampant clipping fraud. The denga, half the value of a kopek, was among the smallest denominations produced under his reformed system.

Wire-cut from drawn silver rod and struck between hand-held dies, these pieces are almost never perfectly round — warping and off-center strikes are the rule, not a flaw.