MŎNĒTA

the mint, or the place where money was coined. The mint of Rome was a building on the Capitoline, and attached to the temple of Juno Moneta, as the aerarium was to the temple of Saturn. The officers who had the superintendence of the mint were the Triumviri Monetales , who were perhaps first appointed about B.C. 269. Under the republic, the coining of money was not a privilege which belonged exclusively to the state. The coins struck in the time of the republic mostly bear the names of private individuals; and it would seem that every Roman citizen had the right of having his own gold and silver coined in the public mint, and under the superintendence of its officers. Still no one till the time of the empire had the right of putting his own image upon a coin; Julius Caesar was the first to whom this privilege was granted.