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 happened by mistake. During the fifteenth century, metal was

very expensive. Dishes and pots were made of a type of inexpensive orange clay called

piggy, which was pronounced just like pig. At that 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 clay was called piggy, people

referred to the jars as piggy banks. Over time this evolved into the piggy banks. After a few

hundred years, people forgot that the word piggy 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 nineteenth century, when English potters began to get requests for piggy banks,

they assumed their customers were asking for banks in the shape of pigs, not banks made

from piggy. 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 to refer to these

adorable containers for loose change.

Choose the correct option:

What is piggy?

i) a type of metal that was used to make banks

ii) a type of clay that was used to make dishes and pots

iii) a place to store money

iv) a pink farm animal with a snout

Who is responsible for making banks in the shape of pigs?

i) pottery makers who worked with orange clay

ii) pottery makers who didn’t know what piggy was

iii) customers who wanted banks with cute animal shapes

iv) bankers who wanted something to keep people’s money in

Before piggy banks were invented, where did people usually store their money at home?

i) in clay jars or pots

ii) in metal jars or pots

iii) under the bed

iv) in wooden box

Metal was very expensive during---

i) nineteenth century

ii) fifteenth century

iii) sixteenth century

iv) seventeenth century​