Many Roman coins would show a god or goddess on the backside, and a description of their role. I found there are denarius and antoninianus coins that feature "Diana Lucifera" on the reverse, predominantly in the 2nd and 3rd Century AD.
Lucifer didn't have sinister overtones and just meant "light bringer", right? The correlation with Christianity's devil is hard to miss, but I wouldn't expect to have anything to do with Diana's role in pagan mythology.
So my questions:
She holds a lamp or candle (EDIT: or torch), and it's always on a pole. Was she acting as a lamplighter? Or perhaps a pathfinder or nighttime guide?
When Christianity was attracting Roman converts and eventually becoming the Roman state religion, was there any synthesis between the Jewish devil and Diana?
EDIT: Here's the highest detail example I could find of such a reverse.
To the best of my knowledge, Diana Lucifera is a carryover from Roman fascination with Greek culture, and is the Roman "reflavor" of a Greek moon goddess. Her name does mean "Diana, Bringer of Light". She is also better known as Selene/Artemis under the Greek.
Genealogically, if such a term can be used, She is the daughter of Titans and is one of the three, primary deities that are associated with the phases of the moon, most notably Helios/Apollo. Just as Apollo drives the sun chariot, Selene drove the moon chariot. This is likely the root for the depiction of the torch although I am not certain.
The obvious conclusion here is that this is in no way a connection to Christianity, and is instead a tribute to Rome's love of Greek culture. At this point in time, the influence of Christianity in the statehood of Rome would not have been anywhere near appropriate to influence the content of currency.
Her role as a moon goddess and symbol of the phases of the moon as it applied to the common man is covered by the Homeric Hymn. The specific genealogy of Artemis/Selene is clearly explained in Hesiod's "pseudo Apollodorus".
