The history of Kashin

In 1964 elephants became our key advertising symbol and we launched our elephant-shaped moneybox to encourage good savings habits in kids, as an elephant never forgets.

To give our savings companion an identity, we ran a naming competition for primary school children. A schoolgirl from Blockhouse Bay Primary School came up with the name Kashin and won the competition. Kashin is a play on the words “cash in” but it also means compassionate in Hindi.

Back then, moneyboxes didn’t have an opening to take the money out – only a slot to put the money in. So when you filled up your moneybox, you’d have to take it to the bank so the teller could break it open. They’d then deposit your money into your bank account and give you a new moneybox so you could keep saving.

We later gifted the real-life Kashin, an Asian elephant to the Auckland Zoo in 1972. At the time she was just four years old and it didn’t take long for her to become a star attraction at Auckland Zoo for generations of young New Zealanders.

Sadly Kashin passed away in August 2009 but her heritage lives on in the memory of everyone who ever saw her at Auckland Zoo and anyone who ever had an ASB Kashin moneybox. We held a funeral service at the Zoo to honour Kashin and over 18,000 people turned up.

Over the years Kashin has been our most iconic moneybox but we’ve had a few others. Some of you may remember Robert Robot and the Police boat.

Kashin continues to be a part of the ASB story and you’ll find our Kashin lantern at community events and kids are still given Kashin moneyboxes.

2015 has been a big year for Kashin. We partnered with New World and its Little Kitchen collectables to bring out a mini Kashin. We also unveiled Clever Kash.

Clever Kash is our latest moneybox and is a digital evolution of the original Kashin moneybox. We like to think of him as Kashin’s grandson.

Timeline

1964 – We ran a competition to name our elephant symbol and launched the first Kashin elephant moneybox

1968 – The real-life Kashin was born

1971 – We funded the gifting of Kashin to the Auckland Zoo

1972 – Kashin arrived in New Zealand

2015 – We partnered with New World to bring out limited edition Mini Kashins

2015 – We unveiled Clever Kash

2016 – Clever Kash pilot will launch