Denga - Vasiliy III Novgorod, ИВА

Vasiliy III completed the absorption of Novgorod into the Muscovite state — a process his father Ivan III had begun with the military conquest of 1478 — and continued striking denga coinage at the former republic's mint partly as administrative continuity and partly to ease the psychological transition for a population accustomed to its own monetary tradition. The ИВА inscription, a contracted form referencing Ivan (his father's name retained as dynastic legitimacy), appears across both Zaitsev varieties, which are distinguished by subtle die differences in the letter forms rather than any change in issuing authority or weight standard.