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Denga - Ivan IV Moscow
| Issuer | Grand Duchy of Moscow |
|---|---|
| Year | 1535-1547 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Denga (1 Деньга) (0.005) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Depicted in the field of this irregularly shaped wire money flan is a mounted warrior — the traditional horseman type associated with Muscovite coinage — shown in right-facing profile astride a rearing horse, raising a weapon or sceptre above his head. To his right stands a second figure, rendered in a stylised, archaic manner characteristic of early Russian hammered coinage. The design is struck in high relief with bold, albeit roughly executed, imagery typical of the pre-reform Moscow mint's artistic convention. The flat, unrimmed flan bears the natural irregular contours of a cut silver wire planchet. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
The denga was the workhorse of Muscovite small change, and Ivan IV inherited a monetary system in crisis. His mother Elena Glinskaya had launched a coinage reform in 1535 — the year this series begins — specifically to suppress the widespread clipping and counterfeiting that had degraded the existing currency. The reform standardized weights and introduced the wire-cut flan technique that would define Russian coinage for the next two centuries.
Ivan was between three and seventeen years old during this issue's production run. The coins bearing his name were struck entirely under regency governance, first Elena's, then a succession of boyar factions after her death in 1538.