Growing up in the mid 90’s it was very common practice to see children save in either a tin or wooden box called Money box. At that age we were encouraged to save in money boxes to take care of things that were important and urgently needed to us. I quite remember using some of the monies in the money box for buying needles and colour threads, flour cloth etc for my Life Skills lessons in upper primary in Akotobinsin Methodist Primary School in Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana, not to mention my favourite starch biscuit, pancakes, condensed milk toffees and many others.
So it was quite common to see children of my age haven money boxes hidden in obscure places in their homes just to safeguard their little savings. Sarah now a nurse, was my age and class mate and had to save in money box to take care of herself from upper primary through to senior secondary school now senior high school by making condensed milk toffees and selling of biscuits out of her money box.
Although most people now deposit their savings in banks, some people probably have a money box at home, in which coins are symbolically placed. The content of money boxes is real “treasure” especially for small children, who acquire a positive relationship to money and gain an understanding of saving in this way. However, many people who have money boxes for coins at home may not realize the origin of this tradition of saving or hoarding coins, which its roots reach back to the distant past.
The oldest find of a money box dates from 2nd century BC Greek colony Priene, Asia Minor, and features the shape of a little Greek temple with a slit in the pediment. Money boxes of various forms were also excavated in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and seem quite frequently on late ancient provincial sites, particularly in Roman Britain and along the Rhine.
Piggy bank or penny bank around the World and money box in Ghana is the traditional name of a coin container usually used by children. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a “still bank” as opposed to the “mechanical banks” popular in the early 20th century.
The act of putting money aside is often crowded out by more immediate day-to-day expenses. It is the duty and responsibility of parents to inculcate the habit of saving in their kids besides most of these children waste lots of money on flashy phones, airtime, games, and other unnecessary things whiles they could make good use of these “small small monies”. Education has become quite expensive the further you climb the ladder.
Most young people today have great ideas to start a venture on their own after school but complain of unemployment and capital to start. Encouraging children to save or buying of shares in the bank attracts some interest which can make them financially independent when they grow.