The History of the Piggy Bank

Another post in my wacky history series! Previous posts: salt – chili – male circumcision – the heart symbol – oysters

A “piggy bank” is the traditional name of a coin container. Piggy banks are typically made of ceramic or porcelain, and serve as a pedagogical device to teach children the basics of holding money, as it can be easily inserted. In the traditional piggy bank, the pig had to be broken to retrieve the money. Most modern piggy banks have a rubber plug or opening located on the underside. Some piggy banks incorporate electronic systems which calculate the amount of money deposited.

But why the word pig? The origin is related to the Middle English word “pygg,” which referred to a type of clay used for making various household objects. Jars, pots and cups were made out of pygg, as metal was an expensive and rare commodity. A Pygg jar was also used to keep a collection of family money, and over time this was called the pygg bank.

The Olde English word for the pig farm animal was “picga,” and the Middle English word for it evolved into “pigge,” possibly because of the fact that the animals rolled around in “pygg” mud and dirt. As the English language evolved, the clay and the animal were pronounced the same way.

Exactly how the pygg bank turned into a pig animal is unclear, but legend has it that an English potter was asked to make a pygg bank, and either through whimsy or ignorance, turned the “pygg bank” into a piggy bank, with a hole for the coins. The idea soon caught on and the pig bank soon became popular through out Western Europe.

In a curious case of parallel evolution, the Indonesian term celengan (a celeng is a wild boar, with the “an” affix used to denote a likeness) was also used in the context of domestic banks. The etymology of the word is obscure, but evident in a Majapahit piggy bank from the 15 century A.D.