Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 646. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $405. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Corycus. Valerian I. 253-260 AD. Æ 35mm (19.62 gm). Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Dionysus standing left, holding grapes and thyrsus; panther at feet, tripod table before with prize crown marked QEMIA that contains a caduceus, palm, and aplustre. SNG Levante 820 (this coin); Klose and Stumpf 259. VF, brown and green patina. ($200)

The presiding deity of the Themian games was the goddess Themis, personification of Justice and Order, who had been the patron of the oracle of Delphi before Apollo. Qema also means a deposit, usually of money, and the Themian games were unusual in having a cash prize for the winners, unlike the more typical awards of wreaths, wine, oil, celery and so forth.