"My numismatic friend Balazs gave me three new books for Christmas. I want to report on one of them. The text is in two languages, Hungarian and English. The English title is Coin Boxes (small saving banks). The Hungarian title is PERSELYEK. It is written by Andras Szlanka, the curator of the OTP Bank' s History of Finance Collection.

"The book has over 300 pages, each one having an illustration of a bank. I had not given any thought to the connection of these banks to coin collecting. I believe that many numismatists, including myself, got their start saving coins, when getting a present of a small bank, perhaps with a few coins to start their savings...

"There are amazing and artistic differences, starting with silver banks from the 19th century, brass, copper, medal, ceramic, cardboard, paper, etc. There is a whole section on piggy banks. The illustrations are quite interesting."

Thank you. With Dave's help I was able to find a page for the book online. Here's a lightly edited Google translation. -Editor