NatWest Pigs etc.

Malthusian

It would be intriguing to know whether the 40 years of saving in cash plus the free pig (at current open market values) would have beaten a diversified stockmarket investment over time. Getting NatWest's interest rates over that period would probably be prohibitive, but you could use the table on swanlowpark.co.uk as a proxy.

As you say, I doubt they'll be repeated. At the time NatWest launched its piggy bank campaign, piggy banks were already retro. They were a throwback to the days when the general population couldn't access banking services and therefore kept their money under the floorboards (if they had any). Just as adults dress children in the fashion of the last decade, they gave their children piggy banks so they could save up in the way that their grandparents did.

Nowadays children would be more likely to have their own bank account (CTF or Junior ISA). Before too long they'll have their own banking apps and cash will be some weird thing that old people fiddle about with.

I may be stating the obvious but a NatWest pig to a new buyer is only as good as an investment as any other collectible, i.e. not very. It has no yield, will depreciate over time and the only way to make money is to sell it to someone for more than you paid for it, aka Greater Fool Theory.

Moreover, the market for NatWest pigs consists almost entirely of a) people who collected a pig or pigs as children, have broken it and want a replacement or b) the same people who like their pig enough to want a bigger collection. This is an inherently shrinking market - as these people who were young savers in the 80s get old and die off, the demand base will shrink, and the price will go down. With classic cars or stamps we can reasonably expect new blood to continue entering the market for the forseeable future.

PiggyBankCollector

Something completely different from the world of NatWest pigs !!!