A medieval money box

September is traditionally an expensive month for many people. Holidays have been paid for, school is starting again, wardrobes are being updated – in short, it's high time to replenish your savings account. Nowadays, this is mainly done digitally, but in the Middle Ages, people used earthenware money boxes.

An earthenware money box

Today, piggy banks are mainly for children. For adults, the piggy bank has largely been replaced by a savings account at the bank. But in the Middle Ages, most people kept their money at home, often in piggy banks. It was a good way to literally save money.

The medieval money box looked quite different. The one you can see in the Ypres Museum is a small, round object about 5 cm high and 6.5 cm in diameter. It is made of red earthenware. There is a slot on the neck through which the money can be inserted.

It is certainly not a large object, but coins used to be smaller and, above all, thinner. The Ypres denier, in use between 1168 and 1304, measures only 1.4 cm in diameter and is only 0.02 cm thick. So you could save quite a few of those Ypres coins in this piggy bank.

Pottery is fragile and breaks easily. But how do you get the money out without breaking the money box? The answer is simple: you don't. Unless, of course, you try to shake the money out through the slot with a lot of patience. The fact that the money cannot be recovered without sacrificing the money box itself is a deliberate strategy. Hopefully, this will make you think twice before touching your hard-earned savings. Unbroken piggy banks are therefore a rarity. The fact that the one in the Ypres Museum is broken probably means that its owner needed its contents at some point.

A special shape

Today, we also know money boxes as piggy banks. Families often had a pig in their home that was slaughtered in the autumn to provide food for the family during the cold winter months. Fattening the pig in the summer was therefore a form of “saving”. No piggy banks in the shape of a pig are known to have existed in Flanders during the Middle Ages. However, a piggy bank from the 13th century has been found in Germany.

The money box from the Verdronken Weide has a different shape. It is a round object with a small, flat top. Perhaps you recognise a woman's breast in it? That is no coincidence. In the Middle Ages, the woman's breast, which provides milk for infants, was a symbol of nourishment and prosperity. And that is how this money box got its unusual shape.