Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1219. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Coele-Syria. Heliopolis. Philip I. 244-249 AD. Æ 28mm (14.86 gm, 7h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / COL IVL AVG CL HEL, temple of Hermes-Simios on tree-covered hill; stairway from ground to summit, purse and [caduceus] in courtyard. Price & Trell 703; SNG Copenhagen 435. VF, heavy dark green patina. ($300)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection.

Although traditionally described as the Temple of Jupiter Heliopolitanus at Baalbek, Price & Trell, noting the associated caduceus (barely visible on this coin), identify it as the Temple of Mercury, located on the nearby hill of Shekj ‘Addallah. Simios is the Semitic deity assimilated to the Greco-Roman Hermes-Mercury.