Denga - Vasily II the Blind

Vasily II earned his epithet the hard way: blinded by his cousin Dmitry Shemyaka in 1446 during a prolonged dynastic struggle over the Moscow throne that had already seen Vasily himself capture and release Shemyaka once, a mercy he would not receive in return. The coinage of his reign spans this turbulent civil conflict, and attributing specific dies to specific years within the 1425–1446 range remains genuinely difficult — the Moscow mint operated with considerable irregularity during the periods when Vasily was deposed.

Huletski's attribution 401А distinguishes this die pairing from the broader Mets#5 grouping on the basis of punch details that reflect workshop continuity despite the political chaos above.