Denga - Vasily II the Blind

Vasily II inherited the Moscow throne at age ten in 1425, and the coinage of his early reign reflects the political instability that followed. His epithet — "the Blind" — came later, in 1446, when his cousin Dmitry Shemyaka had him seized and physically blinded during the brutal dynastic civil war that consumed the Muscovite ruling house for decades. The coins of the 1425–1433 window predate that mutilation but were struck against a backdrop of constant succession pressure from rival Rurikid claimants.

Moscow denga of this period were cut from drawn wire rather than cast planchets, giving individual pieces an irregular, lozenge-like shape that varies noticeably from one specimen to the next.