ISLANDS OFF MYSIA, Nasos. 3rd century BC. Hemidrachm (Subaeratus, 14 mm, 2.31 g, 12 h), a contemporary plated imitation. Laureate head of Apollo to left. Rev. NAΣI Panther crouching right, head to left; to right, head of a ram right. Cf. BMC 1, HGC 6, 1101 and SNG Copenhagen 429 (for prototype). Extremely rare, and very unusual as a plated imitation. Somewhat rough and with breaks in plating, otherwise, good fine.

The city of Nasos probably lay on what is today Alibey Adası (Moschonisi island in Greek), a small island situated between Lesbos and the Mysian mainland. As the Athenian tribute list of 425/4 BC records payments from a 'Nasos Pordosilene', it has been suggested that Nasos and Pordosilene were two names for the same community. If this is true, its inhabitants may have felt the need to change their embarassing original name, Pordosilene ('Silenos' fart'), to a deliberately vague Nasos ('island') in the late Classical or early Hellenistic time. It is worth noting, however, that the name Pordosilene reappears on Roman Provincial coins of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD