Zodiac coinboxes

Pages 46 and 47 of my book, Ten Thousand Prosperities

With this being our Chinese New Year festive period, my thoughts go back to those distant years when I was still with Ban Hin Lee Bank: that home-grown bank in Penang which transformed into everyone's preferred banking institution from the 1970s till the end of the 1990s. What possibly set the bank onto this journey to be so popular with their customers was the series of golden coinboxes. Alongside these cherished coinboxes, the printing of angpow, or red packets, for free distribution also contributed to the bank's allure, but that's a story for another time.

In my 2021 book, Ten Thousand Prosperities, I expressed the belief that the most enduring gift ever produced by Ban Hin Lee Bank was its series of coinboxes. These coinboxes played a pivotal role in fostering a culture of saving among customers, significantly contributing to the healthy growth of savings accounts. This happened approximately five or six years after the bank had introduced savings accounts into its banking services.

The first coinbox was shaped after the bank's iconic building in Beach Street and it remained etched in memory as a symbol of the institution's prominence. Interestingly, the concept initially faced resistance from the directors. However, witnessing the remarkable success of other banks implementing similar initiatives, they eventually embraced the idea. The angular design of the coinbox exuded an aura of strength and reliability, qualities that were particularly valued during the early 1970s as the bank started its journey of reinvention. 

In 1977, the year that I joined Ban Hin Lee Bank, a series of coinboxes based on the Chinese zodiac signs was introduced. For every year for the next 12 years, there was a new coinbox in the shape of the Chinese zodiac animal for that particular year. A plastics company was commissioned to produce the first of these – a horse’s head – which were given to savings account holders in early 1978, as the Year of the Horse began. The coinbox was very well received and in the years that followed, the bank increased orders to meet demand. 

Towards the end of 1982, there was a cultural dilemma as Chinese New Year approached. How would the bank respond to the Year of the Pig? The pig was considered unclean by Muslims and it was unthinkable to offer them a pig coinbox. The solution was to make two coinboxes in 1983: a pig coinbox to continue the logic of the series, and a bear coinbox for any account holder who would prefer that instead. 

Account holders and staff alike recall how every year, in the first fortnight of distribution, scores of people would wait patiently outside branch premises to open a new savings account and be eligible for a coinbox. Even though staff were mobilised from other departments to assist with this, those at the savings account department often worked well into the night to finish processing the day’s account opening forms, only to come back the following day to face a fresh crowd of people. But the surprising thing was that while they moaned in private among themselves, they took pride in the annually increasing savings account deposit levels.

Today, these Chinese zodiac coinboxes are collectors’ items. With the series ending in 1989, the bank turned to other designs and shapes to keep the momentum of coinboxes going but although the subsequent coinboxes were multi-coloured and appealing in many ways, there was no repeat of the fervour that had greeted the Chinese zodiac series.