Catalog
Denga - Vasily I Dmitriyevich Beast right / Head left
| Issuer | Moscow, Grand principality of |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Value | 1 Denga (0.005) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A human head is depicted in profile facing left, with four pellets or dots arranged in the field before the face. The head is rendered in the simple, linear style common to early Muscovite wire money. Surrounding the central device is a distorted circular legend in Arabic script bearing the name and titles of Khan Tokhtamysh, reflecting the political subordination of Moscow to the Golden Horde during this period. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Vasily I ruled Moscow from 1389 to 1425, a period during which Muscovite coinage was still deeply influenced by — and in some issues technically subordinate to — the Golden Horde monetary system. The denga denomination itself derives from the Tatar "dang." Many Moscow issues of this reign carry Tatar-script tamgas on the reverse as acknowledgment of Horde suzerainty, though the degree of that subordination shifted considerably after Timur's defeat of Tokhtamysh in 1395 weakened Horde authority over the Russian principalities.
Hrossman-Pennell II #1351 places this among the more localized Moscow types, struck from hand-cut dies with the irregularity that characterizes virtually all wire-money predecessors in the region.