The United Way of Houston is one group that used piggy banks as part of the centerpiece of the table. They had a luncheon and asked everyone to put all of their change into the piggy bank on their table. Then, they sold the pigs for $5 more than they paid! Their profit was over $2,000 with the pigs!

A casino that Katrina destroyed had a wonderful marketing idea. They created a quarterly program called “Break the Bank.” They bought 12 different colors of plain piggy banks, and they bought each color in 3 different sizes. That means there were 36 banks. (12 banks of each size and 3 banks of each color.) They put $10,000 inside the banks. Some banks had $1. One bank had $5,000. Each bank had some amount of money in it. Once the banks had money they put each one inside a Plexiglas cube and stacked the cubes. It created a see-through wall of banks which they placed near the entrance to the casino. Big Sign “Break the Bank.” I’m not sure how they got their winners, but winner #1 chose a bank – any color, any size. Winner #2 then chose a bank. You get the picture. It was the most popular event they had ever created – which is why they made it a quarterly event. This would work for any fund raiser. Sell raffle tickets and break the bank! Other casinos also “break the bank” altering the original idea in different ways.

In order to educate children to save, piggy banks have taken on all sorts of shapes and sizes. Many people today choose one that is part of the child’s bedroom decor. Or, it may be the favorite animal of the child. We even have educational banks that teaches children how to save. Saving coins IS the first step of investing. We personalize the banks in order to make them even more special. What a wonderful way to give money to a child. Give them a bank with the money inside! One of the top two reasons for divorce is supposedly the inability to manage money by at least one of the couple. What better gift can you give a child than to teach them how to manage their money – even if it’s just a dollar.

The evolution began in the Middle Ages. How many of you had/have a container of some sort that you used to save coins? I’ve heard of all sorts of interesting containers. Well, you are not any different than those in the Middle Ages. People would frequently put their coins in a pot or jar made out of orange clay. In Europe this clay was called “pygg.” It was an inexpensive material. The “pygg jar” evolved to a “pygg bank” which evolved to a piggy bank. Today many people in our global world have piggy banks. The plain classic piggy banks on our site are made of ceramic which is the traditional material used in piggy banks today. The piggy bank has evolved so that today they come in an incredible number of styles and materials.