Moneta






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  MONETA.  This term was used by the Romans to designate their public mint in consequence of money having originally been struck at Rome in the temple of Juno Moneta. This was a surname given to the consort of Jupiter because she was said to have counselled the Romans to undertake none but just wars in which case she promised that they would never be in want of money. The name of Moneta was afterwards used alike to signify pieces of money, and the workshops or officinae in which they were fabricated.

  

   There are some consular denarii of the Carisia family which on their obverse represent the head of a woman with the legend MONETA. On the reverse are a pair of pincers, an anvil and a hammer, all of which are the instruments used by the ancients in the coinage of money.  These are surmounted by the cap of Vulcan and circumscribed by the words T CARISUS.
   Upon another silver coin of the same family, similar monetal instruments are figured with the accompanying legend SALVTARIS.  See Carisia.
   The epithet SALVTARIS refers to Juno Moneta having afforded relief to the Romans when their affairs were straightened by the events of war. The head of the goddess is also found with but slight difference on coins of the Plaetoria family. The legend MONETA is indeed, as has already been remarked, very frequently seen on medals of the Emperors and particularly on medals of the lower empire.
   MONETA, typified as a woman holding the balance and cornucopia, occurs on coins of nearly all the Emperors from Vitellius to Constantine the Great, both inclusive with the epigraph of AEQVITAS, AEQVITAS AVG, etc, or with the inscription MON AVG, MONETA AVG, etc.
   The head of the goddess with MONETA  round it, appears on a silver coin of the Plaetoria and (as above mentioned) of the Carisia family. 

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