{{Short description|Pre-1916 Russian monetary unit}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}} [[File:Four Novgorod dengas, 1420-1478.jpg|thumb|250px|Four pre-reform ''dengi'' of the Novgorod Republic (''novgorodki''), 1420–1478.]] [[File:Denga-1704.jpg|thumb|250px|A copper denga minted during the reign of Tsar Peter I in 1704.]]
A '''denga''' ({{langx|ru|link=no|деньга}},{{Efn|In earlier texts (until the end of the 18th century), it is spelled as "денга".{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}}}} {{plural form}} {{langx|ru|деньги|dengi|label=none}}) was a Russian monetary unit with a value latterly equal to {{frac|2}} kopeck (100 kopecks = 1 Russian ruble).{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}} The denga was introduced in the second half of the 14th century during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy.{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}}
==Etymology== The Russian word ''denga'' is borrowed from Tatar (cf. Chagatay: ''täŋkä'';{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}} {{langx|kk|teŋgä}}; {{langx|mn|teŋge}}; {{lit|small silver coin}}). Other proposals made are: Middle Persian: ''dāng'', New Persian: ''dānag'' ('coin'), whereas other authors saw the word close to the Turkic word ''tamga'' ('mark, stamp').<ref>{{cite web|url=https://starlingdb.org/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=%2Fusr%2Flocal%2Fshare%2Fstarling%2Fmorpho&basename=morpho\vasmer\vasmer&first=1&text_word=%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C%D0%B3%D0%B0&method_word=beginning&ww_word=on&ic_word=on&sort=word&encoding=utf-rus|title=Этимологический словарь Фасмера: "деньга"|author=George Starostin|year=1998–2005}}</ref>{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}}
The plural form of ''denga'', ''dengi'' ({{lang|ru|деньги}}) has become the usual Russian word for "money".{{sfn|Kovalev|2004|p=380}}{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}}
==History== [[File:Denga moskovskaya coins (1480s, Kremlin museums) by shakko.jpg|thumb|250px|Pre-reform kopecks, ''dengi'', and ''polushki'' minted during the reign of Tsar Ivan III in the 15th century.]]
Production of ''dengi'' as minted silver coins began in the second half of the 14th century, during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy,{{sfn|Johnston|2011|p=178}} specifically in the 1370s and 1380s.{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}} They were first minted in Moscow and their introduction marked the end of the country's coinless period.{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}} They were also minted in Nizhny Novgorod and Ryazan.{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}} From the 1400s, they began to be minted in Tver.{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}} Initially, 200 ''dengi'' were made from one ruble, weighing about 1 gram.{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}}
In their earliest form, they were imitations of the silver coinage of the khans of the Golden Horde, usually bearing blundered or meaningless legends.{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}} Weighing about a gram, they were prepared by cutting silver wire into measured lengths, beating each length flat, and then striking the resulting blank between two dies. This resulted in slightly elongated coins, often showing traces of the original wire from which they had been taken. From Dmitry Donskoy's time onward, the coins began to take a more Russian form, with depictions of people, animals and Russian legends, although legends partly in Arabic (the official language of the Horde) persisted on some coins until the time of Ivan III.{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}}
The early ''dengi'' were made in the Russian principalities; the city-states of Novgorod and Pskov also began to mint their own denga coins in the 15th century.{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}} In the Pskov Judicial Charter, the general court fee (''podsudnichye'') is set to 10 ''dengi''.{{sfn|Feldbrugge|2017|p=712}} 220 ''dengi'' were equivalent to one ruble and 30 ''grivny'' in Pskov.{{sfn|Feldbrugge|2017|p=712}} Uniformity in weight was introduced after the Grand Principality of Moscow was united with the other states in the late 15th century.{{sfn|Kovalev|2004|p=380}} For most of its history, six ''dengi'' was equal to one altyn, while 200 ''dengi'' was equal to one ruble.{{sfn|Kovalev|2004|p=380}}
In 1535, the monetary reform of Elena Glinskaya was introduced; the northern denga, known as the ''novgorodka'', was valued at twice the southern denga, known as the ''moskovka'', and the reform created a single monetary system for the entirety of the state.{{sfn|Pashkov|2020|p=174}} During the reigns of Ivan III and Vasili III, the value of money had dropped, with 260 ''novgorodki'' being minted out of one ''grivna''.{{sfn|Pashkov|2020|p=174}} The ''novgorodka'' became known as the kopeck to convey the all-Russian significance of the unit.{{sfn|Pashkov|2020|p=174}} The new coins depicted a horseman with a spear ({{langx|ru|копьё|kopyo}}).{{sfn|Pashkov|2020|p=174}}
The minting of silver ''dengi'' seems to have decreased after the 16th century, as they are found less often in hoards, but they are known until the reign of Peter the Great. The purification of Russian coinage was not completed until Peter's monetary reform.{{sfn|Snodgrass|2019|p=87}} By that time, the coinage had devalued so far that ''dengi'' weighed only about 0.14 grams, and were of little practical use. In the coinage reform of 1700 they reappeared as much larger copper coins, and mintage continued, off and on, until 1916, just before the Romanov dynasty was overthrown in 1917.
Coins minted in the 18th century invariably showed the denomination as ''denga'', but during parts of the 19th century this was replaced by the word ''denezhka'', the diminutive form of ''denga''. Later still the denomination was shown simply as {{frac|2}} kopeck.{{sfn|Gaydykov|2007|p=542}}
==Post-reform silver denga mintage== * Ivan IV (1535–1584) * Feodor I (1584–1594) * Michael (1613–1645) * Alexis (1645–1655, 1663–1676) * Feodor III (1676–1682) * Ivan V (during joint rule with Peter the Great) (1683–1696) * Peter the Great (includes joint rule with Ivan V) (1683–1717)
Silver ''dengi'' were not minted during the last years of Feodor I's rule, nor during the Time of Troubles, though silver wire kopecks were minted throughout this period, including emissions by imposters and invaders.<ref>{{cite book|last=Huletski |first=Dzmitry |date=2011 |title=Russian Wire Coins, 1533–1645 |url=http://ecollect.ru/rwc_tzar/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402051836/http://ecollect.ru/rwc_tzar/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 April 2012 |publisher=Рифтур |pages=10–45 |isbn=9789856919414 |author-link=Dzmitry Hulecki }}</ref>
==Copper denga mintage== {{expand section|date=March 2025}} During the time of Peter the Great, ''dengi'' transitioned from silver to copper, and from undated to Byzantine dates in Cyrillic to Julian dates in Cyrillic. After Peter's reign, dates were denoted using the common notation of Arabic numerals.
* Alexis (1654–1663, production ended in the aftermath of the Copper riot) * Peter the Great (1700–1718) * Anna Ioannovna (1730–1731, 1734–1740) * Ivan VI of Russia (1741) * Elizabeth Petrovna (1743–1754, 1757–1760) * Peter III of Russia (1762) * Catherine II of Russia (1764, 1766–1775, 1783–1796) * Paul I of Russia (1797–1801)
==See also== *Glossary of Russian currency *Tanka (coin)
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Sources== * {{cite book |last1=Feldbrugge |first1=Ferdinand J. M. |title=A History of Russian Law: From Ancient Times to the Council Code (Ulozhenie) of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich of 1649 |date=2 October 2017 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-35214-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDI9DwAAQBAJ |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Gaydykov |first1=P. G. |editor1-last=Osipov |editor1-first=Yu. S. |title=Большая российская энциклопедия. Том 8: Григорьев — Динамика |date=2007 |publisher=Большая российская энциклопедия |location=Moscow |isbn=978-5-85270-338-5 |url=https://old.bigenc.ru/archeology/text/1948089 |chapter=Деньга |page=542}} * {{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Ruth A. |title=All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World [2 volumes] |date=15 August 2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-36463-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JRfOEAAAQBAJ |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Kovalev |first1=Roman K. |editor1-last=Millar |editor1-first=James R. |title=Encyclopedia of Russian History |date=2004 |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |isbn=978-0-02-865693-9 |page=380 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_Russian_History/QKwYAAAAIAAJ?hl=en |language=en |chapter=Denga}} * {{cite book |last1=Pashkov |first1=A. I. |title=A History of Russian Economic Thought |date=26 October 2020 |orig-date=1964 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-31869-4 |pages=145–175 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520318694-009/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOorLcVMy-2bWZUsMHpMDpAO-3q_Roiobk1n2YHMCqTzGGznXq24h |language=en |chapter=Ivan the Terrible's Principles of Economic Policy}} * {{cite book |last1=Snodgrass |first1=Mary Ellen |title=Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia, 2d ed. |date=12 August 2019 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-7796-5 |page=87 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Coins_and_Currency/r7ylDwAAQBAJ |language=en |chapter=Denga}} * Uzdennikov V., Монеты России (1700—1917) [Coins of Russia (1700–1917)]. Издание третье. — М.: Collector's Books; IP Media Inc., 2004.
==External links== * [https://kyiv2014.com/wire.html Kopek, denga, polushka: An English-language guide to Russian wire money] * [http://metaldetectingworld.com/photogalary/wire_%20money/index.htm Examples of some 16th-century dengas] at [http://metaldetectingworld.com metaldetectingworld.com]
{{Ruble}}
Category:Coins of Russia