The main type of German anti-Semitic medal, called the "Korn Jude" (the Corn or Grain Jew) medal, appeared at the end of the seventeenth century. The prototype first emerged in 1694 (shown here). In that year heavy rains and a grasshopper plague swept through Germany. Food prices increased, speculation rose and the starving people blamed the Jews, shown on the medal as the Corn or Grain Jew dealer. Similar medals were issued over a period of some eighty years, from 1694 to 1773. They were issued during hard times, when prices went up and the popular scapegoat was the Jew, depicted as a diabolic speculator.