Petr G. Gaidukov^1,* and Igor V. Grishin^1,**

¹Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia

*E-mail: russianchange@yandex.ru
**E-mail: robert2t@yandex.ru

Keywords: medieval Rus, Moscow Principality, coinage, coin type and variant, coin catalog, denga (half-kopeck), half-denga, counterfeit coins.

As part of the preparatory work for the catalog of coins of the Grand Principality of Moscow during the reign of Vasily Dmitrievich, the authors collected and classified considerable numismatic material (about 13,000 pieces), divided into two periods. The early period (1389 – с. 1412) includes more than 9,500 coins minted in Moscow and regional centres of the Moscow Principality. From among this num­ber, more than 150 coins were identified as medieval counterfeit («thieves’») money based on a number of features. The article considers peculiarities of their manufacture and presents a typology. For the genuine coins, prototypes were identified which served as reference samples for counterfeiters to fabricate their imitations.

DOI: 10.31857/S0869606325020104, EDN: IQYSCD