Sacred Stone of Emessa

222, Lot: 431. Estimate $750. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Elagabalus. AD 218-222. AR Denarius (18mm, 2.86 g, 7h). Eastern mint. Struck AD 218-219. IMP ANTO-NINVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / SANCT DEO SOLI, ELAGABAL in exergue, quadriga right bearing stone of Emesa upon which is an eagle; four parasols around. RIC IV 195 var. (obv. legend); BMCRE 284 var. (same); RSC 268var. (same). VF, toned. light porosity.

Ex Helios 3 (29 April 2009), lot 182.

At the age of fourteen, Varius Avitus Bassianus (Elagabalus) inherited the office of high priest of the sun-god El-Gabal at Emesa in Syria. The cult of his sun god was represented by a sacred stone (or baetyl), and in AD 219 when he moved from Emesa to Rome, he took this stone, probably a meteorite, with him. This coin type commemorates the event.