Denga - Vasily I Dmitriyevich

Vasily I inherited Moscow's minting apparatus from Dmitry Donskoy, who had only resumed coin production in the 1370s after a gap of over a century during Mongol dominance. These early Moscow dengas were struck on irregularly cut flans from drawn wire — a technique borrowed directly from Tatar practice rather than the Byzantine tradition Moscow otherwise cultivated. The Golden Horde's declining grip on tribute collection during this period gave Vasily the political room to expand local silver coinage, though many issues still carried Tatar-script reverses as a hedge against Horde objections.