Piggybanks

There are more penny banks, coin banks, banks than banks in the shape of a pig, the ones we Dutch call piggy banks, the real piggy bank! It is a bit odd therefore to state that the piggy bank in the shape of a pig is the one and only real bank. I would not dare say that! The piggy bank in the shape of a pig looks very modest between the millions of coin banks, of which many are also mechanical.

I am a collector of old fashioned piggy banks in the shape of a pig, the one that one has to smash to get the coins out.
Metaphorically speaking, for there are more civilized ways of getting your money out. Who I am? Gert Deelman and I collect banks (all of them pigs!) since 1965 and after more the 45 year I think I have developed an expertise on the banks that I collect. My collection consists of more then 900 original and unique piggy banks (shape of a pig!). 45 years ago I “fell in love” with piggy banks, I have no affection with real pigs.

Not one of the more then 900 piggy banks has a plug ore hole in the belly/ bottom. As I mentioned before one has to smash it to get the coins out. Methods to get your money out and save the bank will be explained later on. I bought a lot of them myself in various places in Europe. The rest I bought via eBay, boot fairs, antique markets or from collectors who stopped collecting.

As I mentioned before there are more penny banks than banks in the shape of a pig. So what's the link between the pig shape and saving money or getting lucky with the ordinary pig?
In Western society, in earlier times, a pig was the poor man’s moneybox. Bought on the market in spring one could feed a piglet with the household leftovers during the year and the grown pig would be ready for the butcher just before the winter. It not only provided food for the owner and has family, but could provide also to pay the doctor’s bill or the labourer. As a bank in fact. Metaphorically speaking that is also the life-cycle of a piggy bank. The ‘leftovers’ of your money are put in the piggy bank and when it’s full you can smash it to pieces.