Random Saturday - Piggy banks, part 2

Last week, I posted about the history of the piggy bank and said I would write a second post including some memories of mine, so here I am.

The first money box that I can remember was made from wood. I got it from the bank on World Savings Day.
The World Savings Day or World Thrift Day was established during the 1st International Savings Bank Congress in Milan, a day promoting the idea of saving all over the world.
In some countries it has disappeared completely by now, but in others it is still a tradition on October 31st or, like in Germany, on the last workday before because the 31st is a holiday in some regions. Some banks even have a World Savings Week. Nowadays, the focus of the organizers is on developing countries.
It's not a surprise that Germany still has it, after all we always prided ourselves on being the world champions of saving.
I loved the little gifts we got and even today my tape is still in an (ugly) brown tape holder from that time! Back then, the only option for our little money to go was the savings book. My so-called "youth savings books" in the 70s and early 80s had the appropriate colors and hippie flowers. I wouldn't surprise if I still had them around in a pile of old letters or papers, should I happen to find them, I'll add a picture here.

My money box got broken soon, so I can't show it to you, but I found that exact kind on eBay, in different shapes and with different images, mostly from fairy tales.
While the shape I had is there, the image is not, I'm pretty sure I had Snow White. Who knows, though, maybe it will turn up eventually?
In the bottom it had a metal disk with a keyhole unlike other piggy banks which had - as mentioned in my first post - to be actually broken to get to the money.
Another possibility was having a box which could only be opened at the bank, in the early days bank staff even went to the costumers to open the boxes there.

I still remember that we had a savings cabinet in elementary school. It was smaller than this one in a German pub and stood in a corner of our classroom, probably on a table.

Public domain, picture by Willy Horsch
(via Wikimedia Commons)

I don't remember if bank staff came to the school to open the cabinets, count the money from the little inserts behind the individual slots and add the amount to the "school savings book", but I guess that's how it must have been. If you look at my own book, though, it doesn't seem to have happened very regularly.
I wasn't very good at saving, only once - shortly after my birthday - I had a veritable fortune on my book which I withdrew quickly.
Excuse the look, it's over 50 years old. Also I noticed again that not only my name, but also my address at the time had been filled in incorrectly.

By the way, "Sparefroh", the little guy with a coin for his torso, was an advertising figure which was invented in Stuttgart in 1955 and was obviously still around in the 70s although I can't remember it from anywhere else but my savings book.
He got much more popular in Austria where he is still used today in modernized form.

For those who want to collect money boxes possibilities are endless and it is recommended to restrict yourself to a certain look or material unless your space and financial resources are also endless.
There are the simple piggy banks you have to break - unless you are professionally trained like me at putting a knife through the slot and carefully guiding the coins out -, or those with a key that you or the bank has.
My small size Drumbos (which I wrote about some years ago) would have to be used with a knife.

Collectors also distinguish between "still banks" without mechanics or "mechanical banks" which do something if a coin is thrown in and which are especially sought after in the USA. The first ones were for example made from tin, in the USA also from cast iron.
Hundreds of variations were produced, with music, with counting mechanisms, or with movement.
There are also the vending machines like my Stollwerck "Victoria" (which I wrote about here) which "sold" you chocolate or candy.

My own favorite piggy bank was my safe, though. No idea where it went to, but it probably didn't survive my greedy children's hands trying to get to the Pfennige inside.
As I didn't own any kind of piggy bank at the moment, I treated myself to one for my birthday (yeah, I make the weirdest birthday gifts). The safe from my childhood was grey, but I think I can live with a little color change.
I'm sure my money will be totally safe from burglars now 😉

Sources:

1. World Savings Day and the Piggy Bank. History and curiosity. On: UniCredit website, October 31, 2023
2. Spardosen. Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, Spardosen aller Zeiten. On: Kreissparkasse Köln - Geldgeschichte (in German) - also follow the different links at the bottom for more detailed articles and pictures of different kinds of money boxes
3. Jörg Bohn: Spardosen. On: Wirtschaftswundermuseum (in German)