Playing Money

Ever wondered why people call a piggy bank "the piggy bank"?

I was curious. I looked it up at the ever famous Wikipedia and found out that during the Middle English years, they have a clay that people used to make household objects like jars, pots, or other similar stuff - and this clay is called "pygg". It was cheap, even their cookwares are made out of it.

The nice thing about this is that, it is the same type of clay that they used to make their money jars. Since it was made out of pygg clay, they originally called it "pygg jar". It eventually evolved into "piggy bank" because "pygg" is homonymous with the word "pig".

Actually, the real pronunciation of "pygg" is closer to the word "pug". Cute! A "puggy bank" - a coin bank of a pug (dog) made out of clay.

The term has been changed from the kind of material used to the shape of the bank, piggy banks now come in plastics, glass, metals, and even plasters. Some even say that the history of the piggy bank is related to the farmers. Farmers feed the pig (putting coins in the piggy bank), then only when the pig has been slaughtered will the farmer get his money (breaking the piggy bank).

Coins in the piggy bank
People collect coins. Some would collect shiny new coins (like I do), some would put P5.00 and P10.00 coins in their piggy banks, some would place every single coin in their banks, and some would just break their piggy banks to get money (bye bye to piggy bank and bye bye coins).

Fake coins
Bills can be faked. But beware, because coins can also be faked. The most common coins that syndicates fabricate are the P5 and the P10 coins - which are, of course, of no value.

Spotting fake coins
I read some articles about "How to spot fake P10 and P5 coins". I really didn't find a lot, most are just personal observations, some are hearsay, some from "government", and some from money collectors; but basically they tell the same "How to"s.

According to what I read, coins are made out of nickel, copper, zinc, and aluminum. These elements do not stick to magnets. Therefore, if your coin sticks to magnets - they're probably made out of steel, and are definitely counterfeit coins.

Here is a picture of a P5 coin. Notice that the real coin (left) is has smoother, evident features, shiny (maybe because they're new), and the engraved design are evenly stuck on the metal. The fake coin (right) is poorly structured, and observe the circle that looks like a wheel in the middle surrounding the mountain part with the sun - it is smaller than the real P5 coin.

Same as with the front of the P5 coin, the real coin has more detailed design than the fake coin. The letters and numbers are deformed, and some of Emilio Aguinaldo's features are absent.

Once you receive a fake P5 and P10 coin, surrender them to the authorities. You don't want to be caught saving these coins, because once you bring them to the bank to reimburse for bills, they wouldn't replace your fake coins. XD

References:
Wikipedia
Unlawyer
Mukamo Phil