These days the piggy bank is taken for granted it’s a coin bank, shaped like a pig. Kids love them. But where did they really come from? Why do people around the world stuff loose change into small pink pigs?
The origin of piggy banks dates back nearly 600 years, in a time before real banks even existed. Before the creation of modern-style banking institutions, people commonly stored their money at home not under the mattress (or hay rack), but in common kitchen jars. During The Middle Ages, metal was expensive and seldom used for household wares. Instead, dishes and pots were made of an economical orange-coloured clay called pygg. Whenever folks could save an extra coin or two, they dropped it into one of their clay jars a pygg pot.
