Date: 1962
Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 11.43 x 22.86 x 22.86cm (4 1/2in. x 9in. x 9in.)
Materials:
Metal, plastic, paint.
This Plan-It mechanical bank was created by Astro Manufacturing Inc., a company formed by two brothers, John and Steven Berzac, who left Duro Manufacturing, a maker of mechanical banks, in 1957. The novelty shape of this simple mechanical bank had a large Sun sphere in the center that served as the repository for the coins. Around the sphere, a metal disc featured the orbits of the (then nine) planets, with each planet represented by a colored half-sphere. Turning the ring deposited the coin in the bank.
Created to be distributed as a premium by local commercial banks, the Plan-It included a place for a small metal plate that could advertise the gifting institution. The name of the bank played off of the product's intention: to encourage saving.
Raymond Reines donated this bank to the Museum in 2011.
Gift of Raymond R. Reines. Dedicated to the Berzac Family, in honor of Team NASA.
