#86 • Vintage "Pete the Pig" American Mission to Lepers Bank

Part of Eclectic Collection from The Estate of Leo Ronald Morris Online Auction Phase #2 (timed auction by Wardlow Auctions)

High bid $55.00

Status: Sold

Category: Collectibles

Vintage "Pete the Pig" American Mission to Lepers black plastic piggy bank. Bank held together with screw, some scratches and chips in plastic consistent with age (circa 1950s). Size: 4"L x 2.75"h Some background information from from the Presbyterian Historical Society archives website: Pete the Pig is a fundraising campaign of the American Leprosy Missions, formerly the American Mission to Lepers, Inc., a Christian non-denominational organization founded by missionaries in 1906 to cure and care for people suffering from leprosy. The story of Pete began in 1913, when the family of a young farm boy in Kansas named Wilbur Chapman received a visitor from New York. "Uncle Will" was William M. Danner, an executive with the American Mission to Lepers, Inc. Upon his departure, Uncle Will gave Wilbur three silver-dollar coins. Wilbur was so inspired by Uncle Will's gift that he decided to do his part to help others. Using his coins he bought a piglet that he named Pete. Once Pete was big and fat, Wilbur sold the pig for $25 and then donated the money to the American Leprosy Missions; at that time, a gift of $25 provided medical care for a leprosy patient for one full year. It turned out that other children wanted to help just like Wilbur, and the practice of saving coins in pig banks was born.