The size of this medal is between that of a shilling and a half-crown.

A patterer, who used to sell medals on Sunday mornings in the park, informed me that he told his customers the Crystal Palace part was dead silver, by a new discovery making silver cheap; but for all that he would risk changing it for a -penny bit!

The -penny medal is after the same style, but the letters are more distinct. On my stating, to a medal-seller, that it was difficult to read the inscription on his "pennies," he said, "Not at all, sir; but it's your eyes is dazzled." This was said quietly, and with a touch of slyness, and I have no doubt was the man's "cut-and-dried" answer.

The patterer whom I have mentioned, told me, that encouraged by a tolerably sale and "a gathering of the aristocrats," on a very fine Sunday in January or February—he could not remember which—he ventured upon "sixpenny medals," costing him He sold them all but , which he showed me. It was exactly the size of a crown-piece. The Crystal Palace was "raised," and of "dead silver," as in the smaller medals. The superscription was the same as on the penny medal; but underneath the representation of the palace were raised figures of Mercury and of a naked personage, with a quill as long as himself, a cornucopia, and a bee-hive: this I presume was Industry. These twin figures are supporters to a medallion, crown-surmounted, of the Queen and Prince Albert: being also in "dead silver." On the reverse was an inscription, giving the dimensions, &c., of the building.

The medals in demand for street-sale in London seem to be those commemorative of local events only. None, for instance, were sold relating to the opening of the Britannia Bridge.

The wholesale price of the medals retailed in the street at is the gross; those retailed at are the gross, but more than -fourths of those sold are penny medals. They are all bought at the swag-shops, and are all made in Birmingham. It is difficult to compute how many persons are engaged in this street trade, for many resort to it only on occasions. There are, however, from to generally selling medals, and at the present time about are so occupied: they, however, do not sell medals exclusively, but along with a few articles of jewellery, or occasionally of such street stationery as letter stamps and "fancy" pens, with coloured glass or china handles. A of the number are women. The weather greatly influences the street medal trade, as rain or damp dims their brightness. seller told me that the day before I saw him he had sold only nedals. "I've known the trade, off and on," he said, "for about years, and the greatest number as ever I sold was half-a-gross Saturday. I cleared rather better than I sold them in and by Westminster-bridge. There was nothing new among them, but I had a good stock, and it was a fine day, and I was lucky in meeting parties, and had a run for sets." By a "run for sets," my informant meant that he had met with customers who bought a medal of each of the kinds he displayed; this is called "a set."

An intelligent man, familiar with the trade, and who was in the habit of clubbing his stockmoney with others, that they might buy a gross at a time, calculated that medal sellers were engaged in the traffic the year through, and earned, in medals alone, a day each, to clear

On occasions when medals are the sole or chief articles of traffic, they are displayed on a tray, which is a box with a lid, and thus look bright as silver on the faded brown velvet, with which the box is often lined. Among the favourite pitches are , the approaches to London, Blackfriars, , and Waterloo-bridges, the railway stations, and the Cityroad.

Of small coins (proper) there is now no sale in the streets. When there was an issue of halffarthings, about years ago, the street-sellers drove a brisk trade, in vending them at a penny, urging on the sale before the coins got into circulation, which they never did. "It's not often," said patterer to me, "that has anything to thank the Government for, but we may thank them for the half-farthings. I dare say at least of us made a tidy living on them for a week or more; and if they wasn't coined just to give us a spirt, I should like to know what they coined for! I once myself, sir, for a lark, gave to a man that swept a capital crossing, and he was in a thundering passion, and wanted to fight me, when I told him they was coined to pay the likes of him!"

There was afterwards a tolerable sale of the "new silver pennies, just issued from the Mint, ha'pence each, or for ;" also of "genuine models of the new English florin, only :" both of these were fictitious.