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Denga - Ivan IV ДЕ
| Issuer | Russian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1547-1584 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | A mounted horseman depicted in right-facing profile, galloping on horseback while brandishing a raised sabre. The figure is rendered in the characteristic wire-money style, with bold strokes typical of 16th-century Russian hammered coinage. The Cyrillic letters ДЕ appear beneath the horse's hooves in the lower field, serving as a denomination or mint mark identifier. The design is contained within an irregular flan boundary consistent with the wire-cut (chekanka) production method. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A multi-line Cyrillic inscription occupying the entire field, arranged in horizontal registers across the irregular flan. The legend reads «ЦАРЬ И КНЯЗЬ ВЕЛИКИЙ ИВАН», proclaiming the full title of the issuing ruler as Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan. The lettering is executed in the angular, compressed Cyrillic script characteristic of Muscovite wire money of the mid-to-late 16th century. Bullet separators divide portions of the abbreviated legend as was customary on coinage of this period. |
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| Additional information |
Ivan IV — Ivan the Terrible — inherited a monetary system already in chaos from his predecessors and attempted to rationalize it through a series of reforms begun under his mother Yelena Glinskaya in 1535, which standardized the denga and kopek relationship across Muscovite mints. The Moscow, Novgorod, and Pskov mints all struck concurrently, producing wire-cut flans from drawn silver rod — a technique that made uniform weight and shape essentially impossible.
The clipping scandals that preceded the 1535 reform had been severe enough to result in public executions of counterfeiters and officials alike.