Piggy Bank
Hey there, young friend! Are you curious about why we use piggy banks to save our coins? Well, let me tell you a story about how it all began.
Dogs, squirrels, and camels are all very smart animals that know how to save things they need for later. Dogs bury bones, squirrels gather nuts, and camels store food and water to travel across deserts. But what about pigs? Do they save anything? No, they don’t. Pigs don’t bury, store, or save anything. So, why do we use piggy banks to save our coins?
Well, let’s go back in time to the Middle Ages, about 500 years ago. During that time, metal was expensive, and people didn’t use it very often for things like dishes and pots. Instead, they used an economical clay called “pygg” to make household wares. Whenever housewives had extra coins, they would drop them into one of their pygg jars. They called this their “pygg bank” or “pyggy bank.”
Over time, people forgot that “pygg” referred to the earthenware material and started to think of it as a pig. In the 19th century, English potters received requests for “pyggy banks” and started making banks shaped like a pig. These pig-shaped banks became very popular with customers and children loved them. That’s why piggy banks are still one of the most popular forms of coin banks sold in gift shops today.
Did you know that there are even special words for people who study wealth (plutology) and for people who are afraid of being poor (peniaphobia)? And here’s a funny story about a girl named Cathy who had to fill out an application to open a bank account. When she came to the space for “Name of your former bank,” she wrote “Piggy” because that was her first bank - her piggy bank!
So, now you know the history of the piggy bank and why we use it to save our coins. Next time you see a piggy bank, you can think about how it all began with a simple jar made of pygg clay. Happy saving!
