The
SNG volumes are all catalogs of
collections where each coin in the
collection is shortly described and pictured. Each coin has it's own number. Usually you have no detailed comments e.g. about the
history of the coinage of a city or region, you just have the coins.
If a
collection comprises several specimens of one single coin
type (which means more or less the same motifs and nearly the same
weight) then all these coins are described and pictured, each with it's own number.
Some of the
SNG volumes describe parts of publicly owned
collections like the British Museum in
London or the Cabinet
des Médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale de
France in
Paris. Sometimes they are digitized now and can be found online, but there are also
SNG volumes of private
collections which sometimes even don't exist anymore (e.g.
SNG van Aulock).
The
collection in Copenhagen described in
SNG Cop is only in parts available online (and only in Danish
):
https://samlinger.natmus.dk/objectbrowse?media=image,rotation&keyword=M%C3%B8ntIn contrast to that there are reference books which are
type catalogs. These try to gather all coin
types from a certain city, ruler, time etc., no matter in which
collections these coins can be found. Usually (but not always) the
type is the entity getting a number, with references to
collections or other reference works where specimens of a
type can be found. An example is the book by
Martin Jessop Price, "The Coinage in the Name of
Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus",
London 1991.
The online ressources are by now manifold and all in some aspects different
. Especially for the
search functions you find many variations, you have to become acquainted how to use them in each single case
.
Regards
Altamura
