GERMANY. Sachsen, Thüringen und Schlesien (Śląsk). Medal 1694 (Silver, 42 mm, 18.78 g, 12 h), so-called 'Kornjudenmedaille' on the famine and high grain prices. By C. Wermuth. DU KORN IUDE. / THEURE ZEIT•1694 Jewish merchant advancing right, holding a hiking stick in his right hand a ripped grain sack being ridden by Satan over his left shoulder; behind, landscape with town. Rev. Bushel measure inscribed WER / KORN / INHELT / DEM / FLVCHEN / DIE / LEU- / THE. // ABER / SEGEN / KOMT / ÜBER / DEN / SO ES / UER_ / KAUFFT•; below, SPRUCH•SALOM• / XI.26•. Brettauer 1900. Emmerig p. 263. Friedensburg/Seger 4149. Fieweger 82. Kirschner 18. Merzbacher, 4 March 1913, 2483. Pfeiffer/Ruland 75. Wohlfahrt 94. Nicely toned. In an old decorative mount. Tiny marks, otherwise, very fine.



The so-called ‘Kornjudenmedaillen’ emerged from a long tradition of blaming Jews for food shortages, grain speculation, and usury, accusations that became especially virulent during periods of famine and economic crisis. Although hoarding, market manipulation, poor harvests, war, inadequate transport, and monetary instability all contributed to rising food prices, popular anger frequently sought a simpler culprit, and Jews - themselves no less affected by famine - were particularly vulnerable to such scapegoating.

From the late 17th century onward, satirical medals transformed this hostility into a recurring visual stereotype, portraying the Jew as a grain hoarder or profiteer and often reinforcing the message with biblical quotations, devils, or scenes of punishment. These pieces therefore belong not merely to the history of economic crisis, but to the history of anti-Jewish imagery: they converted complex social and economic tensions into a moralizing narrative in which the Jew was cast as both the cause of scarcity and the object of ridicule or retribution.