Piggy banks get their name from an orange-colored clay called pygg, which was used in the Middle Ages to make jars for storing staples such as salt. Sometime in 18th-century England, these jars had morphed into hollow containers with a coin slot, often shaped like a pig to make a visual pun on the name of the clay. To retrieve the coins inside, one would have to smash the jar, which is why so few of these early pig jars, as they were...Continue Reading