ISLANDS OFF MYSIA, Nasos. 3rd century BC. AE (Bronze, 20 mm, 9.36 g, 12 h). Laureate head of Apollo to right. Rev. NAΣI Dolphin right; below, palm frond. HGC 6, 1102. SNG München 809. SNG von Aulock 1763. Rare. Some deposits, otherwise, very 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.