The Office Copier

I was  thinking about cash boxes, their design and construction. The original cash box was literally that a wooden box carved from a single piece of seasoned wood and with a lid in which cash was stored.. The very first cash boxes did not have locks as they had not been invented and the valuables inside were protected by being hidden or kept in a place that was occupied constantly.
Over the years wood and metal working skills developed – the wooden cash box generally increased in size as the jointing skills developed. Then the cash box was made more secure by the use of metal banding and the provision of locks although the earliest locks were made of wood. These timber locks were not fitted to cash boxes as the keys were very large and resembled a back scrubbing brush with a small number of wooden teeth.

As locks improved the cash box was able to be reduced in size and eventually, by manufacturing them in metal they could be portable cash boxes. Obviously the larger size was then called a safe or even a vault.
So who uses cash boxes? In the past retailers used cash boxes for the daily takings in the shop. These cash boxes often had a drawer in the base and as the years went on they incorporated a paper roll that was used to record the money placed in the cash drawer and when the drawer of the cash box was opened a built in bell rang. This was the precursor of the mechanical cash till which also had a cash drawer and a display of the money taken. A more recent development of the cash box is that they have become electronic with a digital display and computer linked to electronic point of sale equipment.
Another form of the cash box is the piggy bank which is used by children to save their pocket money usually in the form of small coins. The designation Piggy, according to Wikipedia derived from pygge which is the clay that the original money storage jar was manufactured from.  In order to remove the saved contents the clay pig had to be broken open destroying it. Subsequently wooden piggy banks have been manufactured which can be opened without destroying them. These wooden piggy banks take many forms and do not have to be porcine! There are all sorts of different shapes although the wooden piggy bank is most common I have seen sheep, cows, bears and even Simpsons Characters.  My favourite wooden piggy bank is actually in the shape of a Wells Fargo cash transportation wagon complete with a locking brass cash box door. The plan is available from Rockler click here to order a free catalog.

Filed under: Comment, The Office Copier on July 4th, 2008