Denga - Vasily I Dmitriyevich

Vasily I inherited the Moscow throne at a moment when the Horde's grip was loosening but far from broken — he paid tribute to Tokhtamysh even after Kulikovo had demonstrated that Mongol armies could bleed. The denga itself emerged as a denomination only in the late fourteenth century, evolving directly from the Tatar term "tenge," a linguistic inheritance that speaks plainly to where monetary authority had resided for over a century.

Moscow-struck dengas of this reign frequently bear Tatar tamgha marks alongside Cyrillic legends, a hedged bilingualism pressed into silver for anyone who might question which power ultimately backed the coin.