Our Past in Penny Banks

The time and money our financial institutions once spent commissioning and personally delivering cast iron penny banks in the image of, for example, the Trader’s Bank of Canada, seems confounding by today’s standards. Although they were often commissioned in vast quantities to convince adults and children that banks were safe places to store personal savings, a high degree of workmanship was maintained.

The first mass-produced toy banks in North America were “still” banks which have no mechanical features and are featured in the exhibit. These were produced as early as 1793 to promote the savings of large pennies minted by the newly created United States government. Peak production came between 1860 and 1935, with cast iron shortages during wartime signaling the twilight of these novelties.

Today these antique penny banks are eagerly sought by collectors who regard them as among the finest examples of Victorian toy making. Though some are tarnished, they may be likened to Greek sculpture; their natural iron state makes them seem more formidable than under a coat of copper or silver paint.

The Architecture of Cast Iron Penny Banks includes more than 30 Canadian and American pieces, most of which are from a private Canadian collection. The exhibit features miniature houses, offices, churches, a three-storey Victorian house, and a domes mosque.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, in the days before the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, banks occupied a precarious position in the eyes of their customers. Unstable economic conditions often led to deposit runs on banks and to disaster. Banks’ public relations departments were constantly attempting to boost public confidence in their operations. They wished to portray their buildings as “temples of commerce” – strong, solid edifices that guarded hard-earned customer deposits. What better way to create this impression than to cast their image in iron?

Perhaps Traders’ Bank of Canada exhibited the greatest tenacity in attracting customers in this way. Upon completing an application form, the customer received a nine-inch high nickel-plated iron model of the bank’s head office originally situated at the corner of Yonge and Colborne Streets in Toronto.

In 1891, when the offer first appeared, customers were invited to make deposits through a bank employee who would visit their business or residence. He would take the savings from each of the four iron bank’s compartments (one for each family member) and record the deposit.

If more convenient, the family could come to the bank’s head office. Interest was paid at the rate of four per cent, which may have prompted Trader’s Bank to write when describing their cast-iron bank offer, “a bank is brought within your very doors, and the seeds of thrift and economy sown among your children and household.” And in further recognition of service quality, delivery time for the Traders iron bank was only days.

Due to the difference in size between the Canadian and American pennies, small-cast iron banks were at a disadvantage when marketed in Canada. The United Province of Canada adopted a large copper penny, about the size of a quarter, in 1858; it remained in circulation until 1939. Today’s size penny was introduced in 1920. The United States introduced the small penny in 1857, heavily influencing the design of most penny banks.

The first banks with mechanical action appeared in the United States in the early 1860s. They became a profitable sideline for iron foundries manufacturing pipe and hardware in the northern United States.

The more popular versions encouraged imitations with sufficient design variation to avoid patent infringement. They often represented morality, plays with good mechanical figures overcoming evil ones in intricate cast-iron pantomimes featuring tumbling from slot to slot to the delight of adults as well as children. Others cast animals of iron with human-like expression who rewarded depositors with wagging tails or moving ears to encourage children’s saving on a regular basis.