Juno on Ancient Coins

[Roman Collector]

Mike Markowitz has published a nice article in CoinWeek about Juno on ancient coins. Here's one from his article you don't see every day!

Manlia Scantilla, Gold Aureus March-June 193, 6.82 g. RIC D.Julianus 7a. Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 135: 21 November 2022. Lot: 317. Realized: 240,000 CHF. Approx. $252,260.

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Wow, great condition and great rarity at the same time. The only Juno coin I have is this sestertius of Lucilla, wife of Lucius Verus.

[Heliodromus]

The last appearance of Juno on a coin must have been on this unlisted half-argenteus of Constantine, issued for his wife Fausta c.307AD.

This coin (unique at the time, and still so as far as I'm aware) appeared in a Zlatko Plesa auction in 2014 where it sold for $45K !

Here Fausta has the "title" of Nobilissimae Feminae (later abbreviated to NF), but would later be elevated to Augusta when Constantine gained sole rule in  324 AD.

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by Heliodromus

[LONGINUS]

Amazing article, @Roman Collector!

 

 

[Roman Collector]

I have umpteen Juno coins, but here's a favorite. 

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 26.73 g, 32.2 mm, 11 h.
Rome, late AD 161 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right; Beckmann Type 8 hairstyle.
Rev: IVNONI REGINAE S C, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter, peacock at feet.
Refs: RIC 1651; BMC 921; Cohen 142; RCV 5277; MIR 19-6/10a,b.
Notes: Obverse die match to BMCRE 921. Heritage Select Auction 232238, lot 64276, 21 September 2022.

[JayAg47]

My only Juno.

[Marsyas Mike]

Great coins in this thread.  Here's a couple showing Juno in her shrine - Trebonianus Gallus and Volusion sestertii.  

[DonnaML]

My favorite Juno coins all depict her as Juno Sospita -- "the goddess clad in a goat’s skin, who was especially sacred to the inhabitants of Lanuvium (modern Lanuvio), an ancient Latin city in the Alban Hills about twenty miles south-east of Rome,” known for its annual Juno Sospita festival, including the ceremony in a grotto beneath her temple involving a maiden feeding a snake. See David Sear, The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators 49-27 BC (1998), p. 52; RSC I p. 85.

[Prieure de Sion]

The gens Rennia, occasionally written Renia, was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens obtained any of the higher offices of the Roman state, but the family is known from inscriptions, and coins issued by a certain Gaius Renius, depicting the head of Roma on the obverse, and on the reverse Juno Caprotina in a chariot pulled by two goats. The appearance of Juno Caprotina suggests that the Rennii may have originated at Lanuvium, where Juno was particularly revered. The etymology of the nomen Rennius is uncertain; Chase suggests a possible connection with the Latin renes, kidneys.

The alliance of the three aspects of Juno finds a strictly related parallel to the Lupercalia in the festival of the Nonae Caprotinae. On that day the Roman free and slave women picnicked and had fun together near the site of the wild fig (caprificus): the custom implied runs, mock battles with fists and stones, obscene language and finally the sacrifice of a male goat to Juno Caprotina under a wildfig tree and with the using of its lymph.

 

Gaius Renius; Denarius of the Roman Republic Period 138 BC; Material: Silver; Diameter: 17.5mm; Weight: 2.80g; Mint: Rome; Reference: Crawford RRC 231/1; Provenance: Ex CGB.fr Numismatique Paris France; Obverse: Helmeted head of Roma, right. Border of dots; Reverse: Juno in a biga of goats, right, wearing diadem and holding sceptre and reins in left hand and whip in right hand. Line border. The Inscription reads: C RENI ROMA for Gaius Renius, Roma.

[expat]

Nice thread and great coins presented.

I have only two coins with Juno.

AR denarius (3,87 g. 17 mm.). Rome, 138 B.C. C Renius
Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet and 5 drop earring; behind, X designating value/
C•RENI below, ROMA in exergue, Juno Caprotina, holding crook, reins and scepter, driving biga of goats right.
Crawford 231/1; Sydenham 432; Renia 1.
Caprotina is an epithet of Juno in Her aspect as a fertility Goddess. As Juno Caprotina She is associated with goats (Latin capra, "she-goat", caper, "he-goat") and with figs, both of which are symbolic of fertility: the fig fruit bears many seeds, and goats are well-known for their randiness. Her festival was called the Nonae Caprotina, or the "Nones of Caprotina", held on the nones or 7th day of July, and it was exclusively celebrated by women, especially slave-women.

Faustina Junior. Augusta, AD 147-175. Orichalcum Dupondius
Rome mint. Struck under Marcus Aurelius, circa AD 170-175/6.
Obv. FAUSTINA AUGUSTA. Draped bust right. Hair curls down cheek, hair in low chignon fastened with band of pearls.
Rev. JUNO standing left, holding patera and scepter; at feet to left, peacock standing left, head right. SC across fields.
 (25mm, 11.53 g.) RIC III 1647 (Aurelius)