GERMANY. Sachsen, Thüringen und Schlesien (Śląsk). Medal 1695 (Silver, 34 mm, 14.20 g, 11 h), so-called 'Kornjudenmedaille' on the famine and high grain prices. By C. Wermuth. DU KORN IUDE. / WOLFEILE ZEIT 1695• Tree bears the body of a Jewish merchant, who has hanged himself; above him, a small devil sitting in the branches pulls the noose tight; behind, rural landscape with a barn inscribed 'LUC / i2' and fertile fields. Rev. WER KORN INNHAELT DEM FLUCHEN DIE LEUTE Bushel measure inscribed SPRUCH SALOMO / XI•V•26• // ABER SEGEN / KOMPT ÜBER DEN / SO ES VERKAUFFT•. Antoine-Feill, II, -, cf. 3928 (for obverse). Heilbrunn 1824. Kirschner -, cf. 25 (for obverse). Exceedingly rare. Tiny marks and with a die break on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.


The ‘Kornjuden’ type is rare in itself; with the reverse legends arranged as on the present medal, it is exceedingly rare. The obverse presents an especially vicious example of the anti-Jewish ‘Kornjude’ motif. A stereotyped Jewish grain speculator is shown hanging from a tree in despair at the abundant harvest that followed a period of scarcity, represented by the flourishing fields in the background, while the Devil hovers mockingly above him.

The message is clear: with grain prices having returned to normal, the supposed hoarder can no longer profit from the stocks he is accused of withholding during the crisis. The reverse reinforces this accusation through Proverbs 11:26, contrasting the curse upon those who withhold grain with the blessing bestowed upon those who sell it.

The medal thus turns economic hardship and anxieties over food prices into an explicitly anti-Jewish morality tale, casting the Jew both as the profiteer blamed for scarcity and as the supposedly deserving victim of its end.