The Nursery Rhyme "See a Pin and Pick it up" is a poem about common household items.

We take such necessary articles for granted but they have some interesting history attached to them.

Pins and 'Pin Money'

Pins have been used for hundreds of years. There was a Guild of Pinmakers, or Pinners.

Pins were relatively expensive during the Middle Ages and husbands gave their wives money especially for their purchase, as time went by pins became cheaper and the money could be spent on other items - hence the term "pin money".

The Dissolution of the Monastries (1536 and 1540) and Needles & Pins?

English Monasteries were famous for needle and pin making.

This proved to cause a problem in England when King Henry closed all of the Monasteries - he passed an Act in 1543 encouraging the manufacture of good needles and pins!