103195 | GERMANY. Saxony. Ongoing Famine & Inflation white metal Medal.

103195  |  GERMANY. Saxony. Ongoing Famine & Inflation white metal Medal. Issued 1772 (35mm, 11.09 g, 12h). By Johann Christian Reich.

 

DER TOD IST IN UNSERE HÆUSER KOMEN / IER: 9. 21. V. (death has come into our homes, —adapted from Jeremiah 9:21), skeleton (the Grim Reaper) holding scythe and entering a home through one of its windows; two dead bodies lying in street; in background to left, church with numerous bodies lying within its walls // Legend and date in 13 lines: "1772 / DAS. 2. VIERTEL / IAHR / GROSEKRANKNEITEN / UND STERBEN. / VEILE. 1000. AN HUN= / GER UND FAULENTEN / FIEBERN GESTORBEN. / DAS #: BROD. KOS: 9. KR. / IN. SAXEN. 16. PFE: / IOH. CHR: REICH. / FEIN ZINN / DANT." (in the second quarter of 1772, there was much illness and death, with over a thousand dying of hunger and fever; in Saxony, bread cost 9 kreuzer, 16 pfennigs). Edge: Plain.

 

Brettauer 1947. Choice Mint State. Highly flashy and brilliant, with tremendous luster remaining–especially for the metal type, which remains free from pestering and hairlining.

 

Ex Gerhard Hirsch 74 (29 June 1971), lot 618.

 

A particularly severe famine occurred in and around Saxony and other neighboring German-speaking lands from 1770–1772, which was the result of heavy rains and crop failures. This, in turn, led to the spread of epidemic diseases from malnutrition and migration. In Saxony alone, the estimated death toll is believed to have been as high as 60,000, which accounts for the prevalence of the famine (both its ravages and its subsequent end) on medallic art of the period. For a time, it was an inescapable aspect of life—a sentiment with which we are all now quite familiar, post COVID.

 

Upload: 18 August 2025.

 

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