The coin bank was different from most I’d seen at auction. Usually, they were metal figural banks in the shape of a book with the name of an actual bank. They were likely given out to customers so many years ago.
At one auction, I picked up a cast-iron bank in the form of an African American Boy Scout.
But this one was unusual. It was in the shape of a cute little house with mosaic bushes beneath windows with curtains, paneled double doors and patterns of brick. In the back was a coin slot; without it, I would not have guessed that this was a bank.
Each time I shifted the bank, I heard a rattle. Something was inside – valuable coins, maybe? – but I had no key to find out. I opened the small double doors on the front (one of the handles was missing), and saw a keyhole but still no key. Then I realized that perhaps the rattling noise was the key trapped inside.
Now, who would do such an idiotic thing, I thought, and how in the heck did they do it, since you needed the key to lock the bank?
I tried lifting the roof of the house, and the top gave a little but the catch held it in place. I turned it over on the bottom to see if there was a way to open it there. None.
All the time, I heard the rattling key. The bank gave up no visible clues to its secret.
I turned that bank up, down, and side to side to side to side. I tried lifting the roof again (and again), pulling the bank down from the bottom, and pushing and sliding different parts of it. Still, I could not open it.
Finally, I gave up, tried a few search terms via Google and found out how to access the key.
Can you do a better job than me in determining how to open it? Take a close look at all the photos in the blog post and try your hand at it (sorry, you won’t be able to actually hold it). Click on the final photo below for the answer.
