Denga - Vasily II the Blind

Vasily II earned his epithet the hard way: blinded and mutilated in 1446 by his cousin Dmitry Shemyaka during the brutal dynastic struggle that consumed the Muscovite ruling house across three decades. He continued to reign regardless, and the denga issues of his post-blinding years were struck under a prince who governed entirely through intermediaries and trusted advisors. The Muscovite mint operated through this instability without interruption — a small administrative fact that says something about how thoroughly coinage had become detached from the physical person of the ruler.