Somewhere. Sometime. Recently. On someone's blog. I saw an image that instantly transported me back to my childhood. Then when I tried to find it again for this post, I couldn't. So I finally settled for the above reasonable facsimile.
As a child, I could never resist the lure of cheap novelties. Especially cheap, creepy novelties. One of my favourites was my skeleton-hand bank. A small metal bank. Black and somewhat foreboding. In the shape of a coffin resting on its back. Similar to the bank in the photo. Although I'm certain mine had a metal lid rather than fabric. But no matter. The concept was identical.
Once activated, the cover slowly rose to reveal an eerie skeleton's hand inching its way out of the coffin to grab the coin that had been placed, conveniently, on the target, and pull it back. Back into the hidden depths of its eternal resting place. Never to be seen again. I loved that bank. I amassed a fortune with it. Or at least as many coins as I could persuade my parents and other assorted relatives to part with. I never tired of it. Coin after coin. Again and again. The hand emerged and then retreated. Emerged and retreated.
It's unlikely that my parents derived quite the same level of enjoyment from the skeleton bank as I did. Perhaps that's the reason it disappeared one day. Never to be seen again. Likely to the same location as my hand buzzer and my whoopee cushion.
7 comments:
I absolutely love that! Adorable!
I had one of those! I agree, it was awesome. I think my parents have still got it, but that might be wishful thinking.
Oh wow! I remember those too. Waiting for that hand to come out and snatch the coin. You'd squeal with surprise, at least for the first few times. LOL! I'd love to find one again!
I so remember that bank. I had one also. Unfortunately, I have very little left from my childhood. I've moved too much.
Thanks for the memories.
Oh, I remember that thing! Back in the 80s, there was one coffin bank exactly like this one on display by the till of a shop specialised in celebrations of all sorts (called Tout en Party, you can google it is still exists). It was September 89, I think, my brothers and I were with the babysitter buying some balloons for our parents who would come back from a trip abroad. We were fascinated by it and spent a few coins just to see the skeleton hand taking them. It put me in a good mood for Halloween.
I read of a superstition to see a ghost: one has to put a piece of silver (I think, maybe it was just any coin) on a tombstone, turn around and say some magical formula. Then the ghost's hand shoul rise from the grave and take the coin. Maybe I am giving the people who thought of that coffin bank too much credit for, but I always thought it was inspired by this old tale.
Sounds hella cool to me! :)
I saw this at an antique shop in Galveston during Spring Break. The lady brought it out for me to look at better. I think it was priced around fifty. The shop's called Somewhere in Time.
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