Mordovka (Russian: мордовка) was a historical Russian currency that circulated in Volga Region in 15-18th centuries. It was found in hoards in Volga Region and Middle Asia.^[1]

The term mordovka (Russian: мордовка lit.'Mordvin woman') is in use since 19th century among Russian numismatists for all similar coins or tokens found in Volga region.^{[citation needed]}

Russian ethnographer Bogdan Zaikovsky [ru] had been collecting this kind coins for more than 30 years and divided his corpus in two classes he called Type A and type B. Type B coins or tokens were made of different alloys and used mostly in Moksha women traditional costumes as decoration. Zaikovsky notes that even he himself knows one of the places where this kind of craft was produced (Traka village). He points at the fact that Tatar, Kyrgyz or Russian women never use them as decoration. Moreover, a legend exists they were money in old times. Interesting that he notes the coins are called mordvki or mortki when mordka was a term for Old Russian coin equal to 1⁄400 of a ruble which as he comments "never existed". He never received a positive reaction from Russian numismatists as they all believed these coins are just decoration tokens or "Post-Peter kopecks imitations". They hadn't share Zaikovsky's enthusiasm regarding his findings since they just did not believe the mere idea that Mordvins considered illiterate village folk could ever have their own money. He lists hidden treasure cites with buckets of mordovkas found and attract numismatists communinity's attention to the problem of the existing early monetary systems in Volga region and coins authenticity.^[2][3]

Type A are minted of silver and look like authentic coins. They have readable inscriptions. Saratov State University scholar Iosif Cherapkin, expert in Moksha language, had examined type A coins and confirmed their authenticity. Inscription resembled Cyrillic without soft signs and was readable in Old (Middle) Moksha and says 'It circulates as 1/2 of gold'.^[4]