| After selling piggy banks for more than a year it | | | | was the common media for making pots and |
| suddenly dawned on me - why are they called | | | | jars, and was referred to as a pygg jar, for |
| piggy banks? What does a pig have to do with | | | | example. One of these jars was often used to |
| saving money? A pig would be the last animal | | | | hold coins. Eventually, the pygg jar or pygg bank |
| you'd associate with saving! Why not bunny banks | | | | used for coins, surely accidentally, became known |
| or doggy banks and for that matter, why an | | | | as a pig bank or piggy bank! The general |
| animal at all?! Additionally, piggy bank sounds like it | | | | consensus is that this evolution transpired a few |
| was intended as a child's item as how many adults | | | | hundred years ago in England when crafters were |
| would use a piggy bank for collecting change? | | | | hired to make pygg banks and not being familiar |
| To satisfy my curiosity I did some piggy bank | | | | with pygg they made pig shaped banks. |
| research and have learned some interesting things | | | | The oldest recorded piggy bank in the shape of a |
| and thought I would share them with you. | | | | pig is claimed to be 1500 years old from |
| As you well know, many, particularly ceramic, | | | | Indonesia. If this is so, it precedes the pygg |
| piggy banks do not have an opening to remove | | | | theory by around 1000 years! Perhaps there was |
| the money. Now why is that? The theory goes | | | | some connection between the pig and saving |
| that this is to serve as a lesson in finances for | | | | money in that culture but it seems to have not |
| children. The piggy bank enables a child to save his | | | | influenced Western culture, where the modern |
| money but forces him to justify its spending as in | | | | piggy bank only evolved from pygg clay just a |
| order to access the money he needs to break his | | | | few hundred years ago. |
| piggy bank. This lesson seems to have been | | | | Understandably, the piggy bank is not popular in all |
| forgotten by many adults! Maybe we should keep | | | | cultures. The pig is considered an impure animal |
| a piggy bank in our front foyer and deposit our | | | | according to the Old Testament and hence is not |
| loose change as we come home each day! I | | | | owned, eaten nor benefited by Jews. Similarly, |
| digress... | | | | Islam forbids the eating of pork due to being |
| The question still remains, why is it called a piggy | | | | impure. Hence, one would not expect to find too |
| bank and why is it in the shape of a pig? | | | | many piggy banks in Muslim countries and in |
| One theory is that just as it was common to | | | | homes of those of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. |
| purchase a piglet and feed it with scraps until it | | | | The modern piggy bank, whether made from |
| was finally ready for slaughter, so too we feed | | | | ceramics, plastic, beads or metal, has been a very |
| our piggy bank with small change ("scraps") until it | | | | popular collector's item and gift for children due to |
| is full and then break it to reap the rewards of | | | | its appealing and humorous appearance. In addition |
| our investment. According to this, the piggy bank | | | | to the smile or chuckle we experience each time |
| would also be appropriate for adults. | | | | we drop some change into our piggy bank let us |
| A more popular theory is that, in fact, the original | | | | be reminded by the lesson it teaches us! |
| piggy bank had absolutely nothing to do with a pig! | | | | By the way, the famous phrase, "break the |
| In the Middle Ages, when metal was expensive, | | | | bank", has nothing to do with the piggy bank! |
| an inexpensive, orange colored clay, called pygg, | | | | |