Where did the Piggy Bank originate?
And what replaces it in a cashless society?
One of my traits is a need to know why, what, where, who and how - and to know it right now! According to my mother, from the time I could talk I was always asking ‘but why’, or ‘how does that work’, or ‘where did that come from’. The advent of Yahoo Search, followed by WebCrawler, AltaVista, Google, Wikipedia and now ChatGPT has made my thirst for knowledge so much easier to satisfy.
In my last post I talked about the Pig of Hope and pondered where the concept of a piggy bank came from. My thirst to know the answer to that random question compelled me to do some research.
According to the former font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, the piggy bank, which is also referred to as a penny bank (I have never heard it called that is Australia) or money box, is the traditional name of a coin container normally used by children. Wikipedia states that piggy banks (in western culture) originated from Germany where pigs were revered as symbols of good fortune.
Paragon Bank, however, suggests that piggy banks are also an important part of Chinese culture. In the Chinese zodiac, the pig is a symbol of wealth and prosperity, and giving a piggy bank is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the recipient.
My research came across a Dutch collector who has a website dedicated to piggy banks (Pig Piggy Banks) and they have a number of theories. I particularly like this one
In the Middle Ages people used to store items in wide necked jars which were made of this clay. The label “pygg jar” was used even long after this pygg clay was no longer used. The jars were originally used to store flour and beans but also money was kept in these jars. They acquired the label “pygg banks”, later piggy banks. This explains that in English speaking countries every money box is in fact a piggy bank, without the association of the (shape of the) pig.
And when I asked ChatGPT, I got a combination of most of the above, along with the observation ‘the piggy bank has become a popular and enduring symbol of saving and thrift’.
So here are a few questions for readers to ponder. How do we teach ‘saving and thrift’ in a society that is heading increasingly towards a cashless one? How do we teach saving in an ‘instant gratification’ society? How many parents out there have kids who still use a piggy bank or any other type of money box? Is the concept of physical currency still something to which our younger population relates? What are our kids not learning as a result of society’s move to a cashless regime?
Potentially an interactive chart that has a checkbox once a chore has been completed (kid) and a checkbox once a chore has been reviewed (adult/sibling), followed by a deposit once reviewed with a visual representation... maybe there’s a business idea in here?
As a father of a 14 month old, I hadn't thought of this yet, but your point around the cashless society is a good one. Kids don't have sound economic understanding. Nor do some almost-35 year old adult men named Sam.
I guess though the lesson is about planning for the future and not falling for the lure of greed. I love growing vegetables. Every afternoon I take my son into the backyard and we check on them and then water them. Perhaps I could teach him that sure, we could take this small zucchini right now, but we don't need it right now. If we leave it where it is, an environment conducive to growth, and return in a couple of days, that same zucchini would have grown and will be of more value to us.
I'm sure there's many other ways, but that's the best I've got at the moment.