An Adorable Result from a Play on Words

The middle English word ‘pygg’ referred to a type of clay. During the middle ages people would store coins in ‘pygg jars’; which was a vessel made of dense, orange clay.

Due to the evolution of the English language, people continued to call their money saving containers ‘pygg jars’ well after they were being made out of other materials. Eventually, the clay origins of the ‘pygg jars’ were forgotten and the word pygg shifted to pig. Cunning craftsman created ‘piggy banks’ shaped like pigs.