Denga - Vasily I Dmitriyevich Head right / Chimera left

Vasily I spent much of his reign navigating a precarious tributary relationship with the Golden Horde while simultaneously consolidating Muscovite territory — including the annexation of Nizhny Novgorod in 1392. The chimera type on Moscow dengas of this period reflects an eclectic borrowing from Tatar monetary iconography, a deliberate political signal of accommodation toward the Horde at a time when outright defiance was not yet viable.

At 0.38g, these pieces were struck on irregularly cut flans, and centering is almost never complete on both sides simultaneously.