A Buckingham Palace Gift Shop Tour Reveals the Royal Family is Making Bank on Tourists

For centuries in Britain, legitimate businesses, alongside sundry opportunists and hucksters, have been producing royal-themed souvenirs, keepsakes, and assorted jolly junk for monarchy fans and tourists alike.

The Museum of London has a Charles II commemorative mug made in 1660 to celebrate the restoration of the monarchy after a short-lived English republic. The mug, described explicitly by the museum as a “coronation souvenir,” features a crude half-length portrait of the new king, smiling if slightly cross-eyed and wonky.