Majapahit terracotta piggy bank, 14-15 century AD Trowulan, East Java. (Collection of National Museum of Indonesia, Jakarta)

A yellow piggy bank

A pink piggy bank

A striped piggy bank

Piggy bank (sometimes penny bank or money box) is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage container, most often used by children. A piggy bank is known among collectors as a "still bank" as opposed to the "mechanical banks" popular in the early 20th century. Piggy banks are often shaped like pigs and made of ceramic or porcelain. Piggy banks are used to reinforce ideas of savings and spending to children; money can be easily inserted, but the pig must be broken open for it to be retrieved (although most children easily got round this by using a knife to retrieve the coins from the slot), forcing the child to justify his or her decision. However, many modern (and most 20th century) piggy banks have a plug located on the underside of the bank to allow easy retrieval of coins. In addition, many include electronic systems that calculate and store the amount of money deposited. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... The Majapahit Empire was based in eastern Java and ruled much of the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Bali from about 1293 to around 1500. ... Terra cotta is a hard semifired waterproof ceramic clay used in pottery and building construction. ... Wringin Lawang, the gate at Trowulan, Mojokerto. ... East Java (Indonesian: Jawa Timur) is a province of Indonesia. ... Front view of the museum. ... Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta), formerly known as Sunda Kalapa, Jayakarta, Batavia and Djakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 592 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1113 × 1127 pixel, file size: 741 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 592 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1113 × 1127 pixel, file size: 741 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Piggy Bank is a song from 50 Cents second album, The Massacre. ... This article is about monetary coins. ... For other uses, see Child (disambiguation). ... A cast iron mechanical bank is a toy bank with mechanical parts popular in the early 20th century. ... For other uses, see Pig (disambiguation). ... Fixed Partial Denture, or Bridge The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramikos). ... “Fine China” redirects here. ... A plug is: a device which is designed to stop a fluid from flowing through a hole. ... This article is about the engineering discipline. ...

Etymology

In Middle English, "pygg" referred to a type of clay used for making various household objects such as jars. People often saved money in kitchen pots and jars made of pygg, called "pygg jars". By the 18th Century, the spelling of "pygg" had changed and the term "pygg jar" had evolved to "pig bank." Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Pygg is a type of orange clay, once widely used for making pottery in the form of jars, cookware and other household items because it was economical. ... Jar can mean: Containers: Antique fruit jar Canopic jar, used in ancient Egyptian burial Leyden jar, a simple capacitor Killing jar [municipality in Zaqatalskiy region of Azerbaijan] JAR (file format) is a file format used to package Java programming language applications Jar, Norway, a centre in the municipality of B... For other uses, see Money (disambiguation). ... A kitchen is a room used for food preparation and sometimes entertainment. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Cookware and bakeware. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...

The Indonesian used the term celengen (a celeng is a small pig, with ending "en" to describe likeliness with pig). The source of this word is somewhat unknown, but a Majapahit piggy bank from the 15 century AD may conclude that this word has been used for several centuries.

This name may have caught on because the pig banks were mostly used by children, and the pig is a child-friendly shape that is easy to fashion out of clay. Once the meaning had transferred from the substance to the shape, piggy banks began to be made from other substances, including glass, plaster, and plastic. This article is about the material. ... This article is about the building material. ... For other uses, see Plastic (disambiguation). ...

Another reason for the name piggy bank that has been put forward is based upon the idea that the coins given to the piggy bank represent the food fed to a pig by the farmer. It costs the farmer money to feed the pig which he does not get back until the pig is slaughtered for the meat (represented by breaking the piggy bank) which the farmer can then sell. For other uses, see Pork (disambiguation). ...

Uses

Piggy banks are mainly used to store loose change or to collect loose change. The owner will then take the contents to a bank to change the small coins into bank notes. Older owners of piggy banks may use theirs to hide certain objects such as condoms, drugs, tobacco and pornography. The broad use of piggy banks is to store loose change in a quaint decorative manner. However, other uses may come of these objects, acting as a swear jar or a hiding place for contraband, such as cigarettes, drugs or condoms. They may come in a range of animal shapes in recent times, and a range of sizes and colours, such as maroon, blue, red, pink, purple, glittery orange, plain orange, yellow, green, sky blue, lime green, fuchsia, olive, black, grey, silver or white.

See also

• Money box

A money box is a storage container for coins, typically used by children to teach them lessons in saving. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Piggy bank

• What's the origin of the piggy bank? (from The Straight Dope)
• The Piggy Bank page Photographs and Facts about Piggy Banks