May 4,2005

Long ago, the pigs didn't save anything! The dogs saved and buried their bones; the monkeys saved their bananas. The squirrels gathered their nuts; the camels saved water in their 2 bumps. Did the pigs save anything? No! They just saved their own meat. So why are pigs used in our piggy banks? Someone made a mistake in the middle ages, approximately in the 15 th century: back then metal was very expensive and seldom used for household wares. There was simple, cheaper clay called pygg.

Housewives used this clay to do clay jars and store their extra coins there. They called this jar “pygg bank” or “pyggy bank”. A couple of 100 years later we forgot what the name pygg really meant: in the 19-century, English potters made pygg banks in pig shape. These “new” pigs were attractive to the costumers and children.   Today pigs are the most popular coin banks.