"A temple to Juno Moneta (or Juno "the Advisor") was dedicated on the Capitoline Hill in 344 BC and its grounds served as Rome's first mint. The association between this temple and minting of coinage was such that the English words "money" and "monetary" derive from "moneta."

Provenance: Jesus Vico S.A, Auction 150 (1 March 2018), lot 414. Ex Herrero (25 March 1993), lot 78.

The moneyer himself is more or less unknown and the little we know from Cassius Dio may actually be wrong. According to Cassius Dio, Titus Carisius defeated the Astures in Hispania, and took their chief town, Lancia, circa 25 BC; but in consequence of his cruelty and insolence, the Astures took up arms again in 22 BC.

There are coins in which Titus Carisius is identified as triumvir monetalis, and another which mentions Publius Carisius, as legatus and propraetor, together with the word Emerita, apparently referring to the town of Augusta Emerita in Lusitania, which the emperor Augustus established for the emeriti, veterans of the war in Hispania. From this it has been conjectured that the praenomen Titus, assigned to the conqueror of the Astures by Cassius Dio, should instead be Publius.

Provenance: Triton XXII (9 January 2019), lot 912. From the Alan J. Harlan Collection, purchased from Freeman & Sear. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 33 (5 April 2006), lot 339.

"This evocative type demonstrates that Roman moneyers were quite familiar with the legends and coin types of obscure Greek cities. The city of Gergis in Troas, near the site of ancient Troy, was said to be the birthplace of the Sibyl Herophile, a priestess with prophetic powers. Coins of the city struck circa 350-300 BC depict a head of the Sibyl on the obverse and a seated sphinx, symbol of prophecy, on the reverse. The types are repeated here, surely intended as a nod to the Trojan origins of Julius Caesar's gens."

Provenance: Ex Aureo & Calicó Auction 319 – Alba Longa, vol. I (7 November 2018), lot 223, Ex Sotheby's "Greek and Roman coins" (28 October 1993), lot 1385.