Piggy banks have been around for a long time, but did you ever wonder why people thought to make their banks in the shape of a pig?
Pigs have nothing to do with money. They don't store food like a camel or a squirrel. So how did we end up using a pig as the style of a bank? Believe it or not, it happens by mistake.
During the 15th century, metal was very expensive. Dishes and pots are made of a type of inexpensive orange clay called pygg, which was pronounced just like pig . At this time there weren't banks like we have today, so people would store their money at home.
When people had extra coins to save, they would place them in clay jars or pots. Since the type of play was called pygg , people called the jars pygg banks. Over time, this evolved(发展) into piggy banks.
After a few hundred years, people forgot that the word pygg referred to the clay the banks were made from. The English language was also changing and the word pig was more commonly used. So in the 19th century when English potters（陶艺家）began to make piggy banks ,they thought their customers were asking for banks in the shape of pigs, not banks made from pygg.
Today piggy banks are made from all kinds of materials. And they also come in a variety of shapes and animals. But the term piggy bank is still used.
