German Satirical Medal (c. 1708, Hamburg)

AspisAiantos · November 9, 2024

Hello! As my first post here, I'd love to share a medal I recently acquired at auction. It's a satirical medal minted around 1708, supposedly satirizing the Imperial Commission of 1708 in Hamburg.

Obverse: A hand clasping a few coins, surrounded by the text KOMSTU MIR ALSO,

Reverse: A bust of a man with hand raised and face peeking through the fingers, surrounded by the text SO KOMME ICH DIR SO.

Note that the side on which the man's face appears is in fact the reverse of this medal, a fact confirmed by the inscription, which can best be translated to English by invoking the well-known phrase:

"You scratch my back... I'll scratch yours."

If you are interested in reading some of the history surrounding the events during which this medal was minted, here is a fantastic article on The Imperial Decree for Jews of 1710. Introduced as a direct result of the Imperial Commission of 1708, the decree provided formal guarantees of legal security for the Jewish populations of Hamburg. These regulations later became part of Hamburg's new constitution (called the Basic Law, or Hauptrezess) in 1712.

It seems likely that the depictions and text on this medal were meant to imply that the Jewish population brought about the Imperial Commission of 1708 through bribery, a perhaps not-so-surprising assertion given that the population of Hamburg, as well as the continent at large, was rife with anti-semitic attitudes and beliefs at this time.

There are a few varieties of this medal in silver and gold all depicting similar images and text, but clearly designed by different artists. The following two reference sources are frequently cited:

Collectio Fieweger. Katalog satyrischer Medaillen und Münzen aus dem Nachlaß Professor C. Fieweger. (Berlin, 1885).

Gaedechens, Otto. Hamburgische Münzen und Medaillen, Volume II. (Hamburg, 1850-1876).

Gaedechens is the only source I have been able to find that includes a depiction of any medals of this type. The depiction happens to be of the exact variety I acquired! Gaedechens also describes a version of this medal struck in gold. I have included an image of this medal's entry in Gaedechens below.

Thanks for reading!