THE famous green and gold tin-plate Commonwealth Bank money box is a childhood icon of the mid. twentieth century. It was modelled on the Bank's head office building on the corner of Pitt Street and Martin Place in Sydney built in 1916. 

At its opening the Governor-General and Prime Minister ceremoniously unlocked the entrance door and the Commonwealth Treasurer the strong room door. In fact, the Bank became widely known as the 'money box' building.

Heralded as 'a standing symbol of national prosperity', this building was ideal to portray in money box form which was first issued in 1922. They could be purchased for sixpence at bank branches and post offices with the idea of encouraging thrift amongst children. Returned full to the bank, a new money box was then issued free of charge. 

Post-WWII shortages of tin-plate saw the money boxes in short supply as production of tinned food took precedence.  

Once the coins were dropped in the slot, it was impossible to extract them and you'd have to go to a bank branch to get your money out. Bank tellers used a special opener to literally rip off the roof of your tin bank. 

Tellers complained that as well as coins, some contained rusty nails, buttons or even water. By the 1950s it often took tellers half an hour of their day to open and count the contents of money boxes. Perhaps this led to the bank adding a detachable plug on the base so that children could retrieve the contents themselves. 

The sale of Commonwealth Bank building money boxes seems to have finished by 1968 as the bank replaced them with 'Get with the Strength' plastic elephant ones. Probably, many thousands of the bank's customers today owe their allegiance to saving in Commonwealth Bank money boxes as children.